Return of the Snow Queen
by Julia451
Summary: Sequel to "Let The Storm Rage On." After Hans teams up with the original Snow Queen to get revenge against Elsa, three of the Avengers are sent North to investigate the source of the unnatural polar vortex sweeping across the world. What will happen when Bruce and Elsa are reunited? Reveals the origins of Elsa's powers.
1. Prologue

Once upon a time, a young princess named Gerda was betrothed to Kai, the young prince of the neighboring kingdom of Arendelle. The two best friends grew up together – one year, she would spend the summer with his family; the next, he would spend the spring with hers. She was staying in Arendelle one winter when her grandmother, the old dowager who had accompanied her, told them both the story of the Snow Queen, a strange, magical being from another world who had incredible power over ice and snow. She didn't create all snow, but she was able to cause blizzards, ice storms, and the bitterly cold winds that froze everything in their path whenever she pleased, until her power was weakened by the spring sun. During autumn and winter, however, everyone lived in fear of where her icy wrath would strike next.

Kai, who was becoming a man by now, thought someone should stop her, and bragged that, when he became king, he would ride north to her ice palace and melt her with a burning torch, freeing the world from her terror forever. Gerda declared he wouldn't go without her. The Snow Queen accepted their challenge, and a vicious snowstorm struck Arendelle that night. But it was no ordinary snowstorm. Floating in the air were tiny shards of ice from the Snow Queen's mirror that froze any human eye or human heart they struck. At first, an infected eye merely saw all the world as dark and ugly, containing nothing but pain and despair, and an infected heart felt nothing but hatred for all around them. If the shard wasn't removed, however, as time went on, the heart would freeze into a lump of ice, slowly freezing the victim from the inside out until they turned to solid ice... if the Snow Queen let it progress that far, for alive, the victim's mind belonged to her, feeling only what she wanted them to feel, thinking only what she wanted them to think.

This was what the Snow Queen had planned for Kai. From the moment the ice struck his eye and heart, he belonged to her. She let him torment Gerda for a few painful days with his strange behavior before she took him away. He disappeared in the storm, and Gerda was the only one who knew he wasn't dead, for, of course, no one else believed her grandmother's stories about the master of snow and ice from another world. She realized she would have to rescue him on her own, so she mounted her horse and rode north towards the frozen lake where the Snow Queen's ice palace lay.

The Snow Queen watched the journey of the girl who dared to challenge her in her Mirror of Reason, eagerly anticipating the moment when she would finally give up or die, both victories equally satisfying. The girl ran into plenty of obstacles and friends along the way, from a newlywed prince and princess and their two helpful pet crows, to the daughter of a band of robbers who at first intended to keep her for herself but grew to care about her and let her go. No matter how cold and treacherous the terrain got, no matter what she lost, the girl kept pushing on. To her surprise, the Snow Queen realized she would reach her palace before long. She couldn't wait to see the look on her face when her beloved refused to leave with the girl he couldn't even remember!

The Snow Queen went out to give her guest a proper greeting, but such a violent blizzard had started just when she was getting close – courtesy of either some magic of the girl's or some other source – that she couldn't see her even in the mirror. She left to go search for her, but she could find nothing in the grounds surrounding her castle. When she returned a short time later, her captive was gone, leaving behind nothing but the word he never should have been able to remember, carved indelibly and irremovably into the icy floor. She had been robbed of her victory by that horrible human magic nothing could withstand – they called it True Love.

The Snow Queen didn't bother to pursue them – there was nothing she could do to harm them after the girl's tears of True Love had dissolved the ice in the boy's heart and released him from her power. There was great celebration throughout Arendelle when they returned home. Kai's father the king warned them never to speak of what had happened, lest their account of the Snow Queen's horrifying power spread fear and panic throughout the land, but, of course, rumors leaked out. Contrary to the king's fears, however, the story of Gerda's victory filled the people not with terror but with hope. The story was eventually embellished to the point where it ended with Gerda's love for Kai melting the Snow Queen herself, defeating her once and for all and freeing the world from her evil forever. Kai and Gerda, forbidden to speak of it, ignored the rumors, and the people gradually did, as well. The story was repeated less and less frequently until it was all but forgotten, along with the fear of the Snow Queen.

Only the lovers and the Snow Queen herself never forgot it. To be beaten by a lone, young, unarmed, human girl was the most humiliating defeat she had ever experienced. She vowed she would have revenge on both of them! She would freeze their kingdom in an eternal winter... no, if this True Love could protect them, perhaps it could protect their people as well. She needed to find a way to break that defense. She would have to be patient. She had to bide her time. She no longer drew attention to herself by sending blizzards, frigid winds, and blankets of frost throughout the world, lest some other starry-eyed adventurer protected by this power of love come to slay her before she could have her revenge. Leaving the weather to its own devices for now, alone in her castle, watching the world in the Mirror of Reason, she waited for just the right opportunity.

It came when her enemies, now grown and married and ruling Arendelle, were expecting their first child. Their love might protect them, but not their children! When the young princess was born, the Snow Queen cursed her with powers over ice and snow exactly like her own. Her parents would know – they would know how and why. The child they loved, transformed into what they loathed – let them try to love what they must fear! Let them try to protect her from the people who would cast her out once they knew! They had taken a precious victory from her – now she would take their most precious treasure from them. What would they do when they saw their beloved daughter wielding the same power as their arch enemy?

At first, they did nothing except live in a heightened state of awareness and anxiety, particularly when their second daughter was born. It was amusing, watching them struggle against they fear they felt over the years. That all changed as soon as the princess unintentionally shot a splinter of ice in the other girl's eye, unable to control it or awaken her from the trance. She survived, but their happiness was over. A living nightmare had begun for their entire family. From then on, their lives were ruled by fear.

However, even after she was finally able to end their lives in a mighty storm at sea, the Snow Queen was not satisfied. Neither they nor their children had suffered enough to pay for the humiliation she had suffered at their hands. No matter – the girl couldn't keep it inside forever. Her power cried for release, demanded to be set free. The harder she foolishly tried to repress it, the more it destroyed her from within. It was only a matter of time before she lost control and doomed herself and her kingdom by her own hand, and then their punishment would be complete!

It was worth the wait. The outcome was better than she expected. Nothing could compare to seeing the anguish it caused the girl to helplessly turn her entire kingdom into a frozen wasteland! The Snow Queen knew that, no matter what she could have done on her own, it never would have been as painful for the girl as causing it herself. She hated and feared herself as much as her people did! The best part, however, came when her sister went chasing after her as foolishly as their mother had gone chasing after their father all those years ago; within a few minutes of finding her, she had a shard of ice lodged in her heart. Of course, because the girl had no idea what she was doing, her sister didn't get the full effect; it didn't cloud her mind like it had their father's, but it did begin freezing her from the inside out, and unusually quickly, at that. Once the queen realized she had killed her beloved sister, she would either die from a broken heart or cast herself off the highest point of her ice palace, if her people didn't hunt her down and execute her as a wicked witch. Either way, the children of Kai and Gerda would pay at last for their parents' audacity, as would their kingdom, and the Snow Queen's revenge would be complete...

Or so she thought. Her second defeat was twice as infuriating as her first. Victory was right within her grasp, snatched away at the last second! Was there no way to overcome this human power of True Love? Nothing that was a match for it?! Princess Anna's love for her sister was strong enough to heal her frozen heart; Queen Elsa's love for her sister was strong enough not only to end the eternal winter but help her realize how to control her powers. Once again, True Love had ruined everything! It was impossible! There must be a way to fight it! She would not rest until she found it!

Ashamed of her latest failure, the Snow Queen remained secluded from the world in her ice palace, watching over the unsuspecting Queen Elsa and her sister through the Mirror of Reason, ever on the lookout for any possible advantage or sign of weakness. Not only had her plan failed, but her curse had backfired. Fully in control of her icy abilities, Elsa was just as powerful as she was, if not more with that power of True Love on her side. It wasn't supposed to end like this! Elsa's powers were supposed to destroy her, not strengthen her! How could she ever get her revenge now?

The Snow Queen kept a vigilantly close eye on all the sisters' allies and enemies, on all those who came and went to and from Arendelle, never letting the slightest opportunity go unexplored. The only interesting figure to cross their path was a man suffering from a curse of his own who left as quickly as he came. She kept an eye on him out of desperation but saw nothing and nobody she could use against Kai's and Gerda's daughters. As the months passed, she began to lose all hope of victory. Where would she ever find a force that was a match for Elsa?

"_Puny god..."_


	2. Best Served Cold

The dark alley echoed with the anxious tread of the man's boots on the wet cobblestones. His figure cut back and forth through the fog, occasionally stopping to flatten itself against the wall at the first hint of noise. The only sounds to reach his deserted nook were the faint curses and guffaws of workmen and sailors on the nearby docks and the squeaks of mice as they ran from cats. Finally, the man looked up at the full moon and sighed in resignation.

"Well, there goes his last chance," he said to himself. He poked his head around the corner and was scanning to make sure the coast was clear when he felt a hand grab his shoulder. With one instinctive, fluid motion, he whirled around, backed away, and pulled out a dagger.

"Oh, I'm sorry – did I startle you?" said the amused voice beneath the long, black cloak.

"Show yourself!" The newcomer stepped forward into the moonlight and threw back his hood, revealing a young but hardened face framed by fiery red hair. His nervous companion lowered his weapon and sighed in relief. "You're lucky – after tonight, I was going to give up."

"Sorry – it took me longer than I anticipated to access my funds," said the cloaked figure as he untied a small sack, jingling with coins, from his belt.

"I hope you brought enough," the first man said cockily. "Waiting here four nights in a row has doubled the price."

"I'm good for it," the other said impatiently. "Do you have it?"

The older man crossed his arms. "Are you sure? Last I heard, prison wasn't a very lucrative career, _Hans_." The emphasis wasn't in the word he spoke but in the word he left out.

"You would be wise to remember I'm still a prince."

The first man laughed smugly and said, "I don't think your king sees it that way."

"We'll soon see about that," said Hans, clenching his fist at the mention of his brother. He shook the purse full of coins again and told his companion, "Believe me when I say there's no problem; I've made arrangements for just such occasions as this, so you can stop stalling. Do you have it or not?"

"Well prepared – I like that. Haven't met many traitors who take the proper precautions in case..."

"Do you have it?"

"So eager... perhaps I should triple the price..."

"Do. You. Have it?!"

The older man shook his head, bored with that refrain now. "Calm yourself – it's right here." He held up the leather bag hanging from his right shoulder. His customer took a step towards it but stopped in his tracks when the owner clutched the bag against his side, held out his left hand, and cleared his throat.

Hans poured a few coins from the purse into his palm and pocketed them before holding out the rest. The dealer began rummaging through his bag of goods as he said, "I hope you appreciate what I'm doing for you. This artifact has been in the family for generations. Decades we've spent protecting it from thieves and bandits. And it's paid for itself hundreds of times over. You're getting quite a bargain..."

Hans rolled his eyes in boredom. "Yes, I'm sure it took unimaginable pains and dangers to acquire it."

To his surprise, the older man shrugged his shoulders and said, "Actually, no, it was..."

Anticipating his next words, Hans groaned, "Let me guess – a_ steal_?"

His companion removed a small package wrapped in plain brown paper and string from his bag as he answered, "As a matter of fact, yes, it was. The king sold it to my great-grandfather for a pittance – said it reminded him of a painful part of his past and he wanted to be rid of it once and for all."

"Would've been easier just to destroy it," Hans said doubtingly.

"Not when he knew what would happen if he did."

"If this is a trick..."

"Would I lie to you, Your _Highness_?"

The customer glared skeptically at the vendor as they made the trade. Hans instantly tore the paper away from the package while its previous owner began counting the coins. The prince grinned hungrily at the sight beneath the wrapping and ran his fingers over the shining silver edges, still unable to believe it was real. "It _does_ exist... at last... after all this time, it's finally mine!"

Still counting his payment, the dealer laughed and said, "I told you you could trust me." Satisfied that he hadn't been cheated, either, he stowed the gold in his bag and headed to one end of the alley. As he waited to be sure no watchman or other unwanted guest was passing when he made his exit, he whispered, "Pleasure doing business with you. If there's ever anything else I can help you with..."

Hans waved the artifact in front of him as he finished: "... I know where to find you."

"Use it well," the first man said sarcastically before he darted off into the darkness.

"Oh, I intend to," the fugitive whispered as he admired his new treasure. It shone brilliantly in the moonlight, with not a single scratch, speck of dirt or rust, or any sign of tarnishing or aging in its smooth, flawless surface. Was it his imagination, or did it vibrate in his fingers, as if it was alive with power?

Time to see if it had as much power as the legend said. After taking a quick, instinctive glance to the left and right, Hans gripped the handle firmly in his right hand, narrowed his eyes, and whispered, slowly and bitterly, "Show me the princess of Arendelle."

The mirror glowed a brilliant emerald green as his reflection was swallowed by a swirling, golden spiral. For an instant, the light burst into a bright, blinding glow that obscured everything; then, the glare died away to reveal, not the face of a red-haired man standing alone in a dark alley shrouded in fog, but a crowded ballroom at the height of the evening's festivities, with not a single idle bystander to be found amongst the army of dancers. He was only interested in one of them: the strawberry-blonde girl who skipped across the dance floor like a sprite, on the arm of a rugged, young, blonde man, both making up for what they lacked in grace and refinement with a seemingly limitless supply of energy and laughter. Hans recognized his face instantly; it would appear that what he'd heard in prison about her marrying that commoner was true. He had never really doubted it, but seeing it with his own eyes was even more surprising than how he was seeing it.

He was too angry to pause to marvel at the magic he had just confirmed that he held in the palm of his hand. _That should have been me!_ was the only thought that registered in his mind. He was supposed to be their adored prince, surrounded by cheering subjects, finally receiving the respect he deserved, with no older brothers to steal the spotlight! Prince? No – he would have been king by now, the previous queen safely disposed of months ago and him sitting securely on the throne beside his wife, who was in too much awe of him to draw away any of his glory or interfere with his spotlight, the entire kingdom at his command, all heads turned toward him, all knees bowed, all the honor he'd been unjustly robbed of his entire life his at last!

His rage grew as he watched the young couple flit around the ballroom. Just look at them! Dancing as if they hadn't a care in the world while he was forced to slink through the streets like a criminal! He should have been the center of everything tonight and every night; instead, he was forced to watch from the sidelines. Just like he'd always been! He had watched his oldest brother be crowned king, the second and third oldest marry neighboring queens, and the rest be honored for wise counsel or bravery on the battlefield while he was trapped on the sidelines. That was supposed to be over by now! Everything had gone wrong! They had ruined everything for him!

_You always knew there was a chance it would end this way_, Hans reminded himself. He had known from the beginning that attempting to gain a throne by marriage and/or assassination came with certain risks, and he had taken all the necessary precautions should he ultimately fail. Almost as soon as he found just the right opportunity and made his move, he was arrested and sentenced for treason, with his title, birthright, fortune, and estate all confiscated. Fortunately, he had been prepared, storing sufficient amounts of money in strategic locations for just such circumstances as this.

His first goal after he escaped from prison had been to track down the mirror he now held in his hand. It was the only way he could think of to find the key to getting his revenge on the women who had done this to him. It had taken months of searching, bribery, threats, and trickery, but he had finally tracked it down! Now it was only a matter of time before they paid for ruining his plans!

He intended to get more than simply revenge, however. His desire for a throne and kingdom of his own hadn't died; that ambition still burned hot within him, and Hans still had every intention of fulfilling it. The only problem was that, after what he'd done, not only had rulership of the Southern Isles become even more hopelessly unobtainable than ever, but he had no chance of making a royal marriage anywhere now, which meant that, if he were to rule anywhere, it would have to be Arendelle; he would have to take what he wanted from these two sisters – he wasn't going to get it anywhere else. The question was, how?

Princess Anna's husband scooped her up and twirled her around, only for her to pull him into a passionate kiss as soon as he set her down. Hans frowned as he assessed the position this put him in. She was useless to him now. There had been times when he cursed himself for not trying to maintain her trust (maybe if he had kissed her and then played the heartbroken lover, lamenting that she obviously didn't love him like she'd claimed?), but it was too late now. She undoubtedly hated him more than anyone; she would never trust him again. He had no hope of getting the throne through her. That left one other option...

As if responding to his thoughts, the area visible to him in the mirror shifted so that his vision was soon focused on a different figure across the room. Hans dimly recognized Queen Elsa's partner from a ball his parents held years ago, but he couldn't recall his name. Elsa certainly danced better than her sister, although she didn't seem to be enjoying herself quite as much; her smile wasn't half as wide as her partner's, but, still, it was genuine, and the guests surrounding them clapped and laughed as if there was no place they would rather be.

The dance ended, and she thanked her partner and let him kiss her hand but then walked away without a single glance back. The young man looked longingly after her for a bit before sighing in disappointment. She had been attentive and polite but also perfectly cool; he could cherish no hopes of anything more with her. Every man she passed turned to glimpse at her as she walked by, but she simply smiled and shook her head at the bold few who asked her for the next dance. She made her way to the dais at the head of the room and sat down alone with a smile and a sigh, content but not excited, happy but peacefully, not mirthfully, so.

To Hans, the scene was incredible because it looked so normal. On the surface, there was nothing special about the woman, nothing the least bit unusual about her behavior or the attitude of the people around her, nothing to indicate she was different from any other queen in history. One never could have guessed by looking at her what she'd been through in her past or what incredible power she possessed.

"The fool," Hans whispered aloud. "Pitiful..." To think someone with talent like hers would spend her life like this, quietly ruling one little kingdom, when she could conquer countless others! He understood why, when she couldn't control it, it had been necessary to hide it (using it could only have caused more damage than good), but why would she go about business as usual after she learned how to control it? Why didn't she use it for something besides the childish shows and games he'd heard about? He had seen what she was capable of – why didn't she make sure everyone else knew, too? Had she forgotten what she could do?! She could have brought the world to its knees in fear! Forced everyone to obey her! Done anything, gotten anything she wanted! It wasn't fair! If he had that kind of power, he would have put it to real use! It was wasted on her!

_That's not the only thing going to waste_, Hans couldn't help thinking as he watched men continue to present themselves to her. All of them received a few minutes of pleasant but idle conversation before she moved on; their company may have pleased her, but, apparently, none of them interested her. Whatever it took to satisfy her, evidently, no one in that room had it. Everything about her manner confirmed that, still, no one was getting anywhere with her. Her new wardrobe made it painfully obvious what they were missing. The fact that she wasn't conscious of it, that she walked with that sheer film of ice glittering on her slender shoulders and that train swirling around her shapely legs as if unaware of the effect it produced, only made it worse. Hans looked her body up and down from head and toe, surprised at his own curiosity; he'd never cared to look at many women that way, but, then again, he would have to be blind not to notice how beautiful this one was. He grinned as he watched her flip her braid back as she pushed a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes. Yes, it was a shame – so much power, so much beauty being wasted. It was high time someone fixed that...

_I knew I shouldn't have given up on the heir of Arendelle so quickly_, Hans thought with regret. She had been his target from the beginning, before comparing her disposition with her sister's had made him decide it would be much more efficient to change tactics. To his credit, he _hadn't_ miscalculated; marrying Princess Anna and making her the heir _would_ have been much easier than trying to woo Elsa as she was back then. His plan had only failed because of the sudden revelation of Elsa's powers, something he couldn't possibly have been expected to account for. The plan was perfect, but everything fell apart because of her freak spell of eternal winter. It was all because of her! Anna was annoying, but she was no threat; to harbor a grudge against that buffoon would have been beneath him. His pride wouldn't allow him to acknowledge harmless, silly little Anna as an opponent. No, his hatred was directed entirely at Elsa – she was the one who had wrecked everything!

He couldn't be too hard on Elsa, though. After all, the eternal winter incident had given him an opportunity he'd never expected. For two days, he'd been the hero of Arendelle, the people's refuge and defender, helping them survive a terrible ordeal, his greatness and virtue proclaimed throughout the land. He had always wanted to be the hero, adored by the masses who looked to him for guidance and protection. He'd finally gotten the recognition and respect he deserved! He should have gone down in history as the great hero who saved Arendelle from the monster that threatened it! He still didn't know what had knocked him out or what had happened before he regained consciousness. All he knew was that he had been robbed of his triumph! He had never gotten his moment of glory!

"You'll pay for that, _my lady_," the prince hissed at the queen through teeth clenched in anger. She would pay for humiliating him like that! One way or another, her kingdom would be his! He just had to defeat her first...

_Therein lies the challenge_, thought Hans, looking forward to it. He knew what he was dealing with this time. And, if another legend was true, it should be easily dealt with. Time to get down to business. The last thing he saw in the ballroom was Princess Anna running up to embrace her sister and asking her if she was having a good time. Then he said, "Show me the Snow Queen," and watched the mirror light up again.

When the light faded, he was looking at a vast chamber carved entirely from ice – floor, walls, pillars – coated in a thin layer of snow. Everything in the room was so still that he at first thought it was empty, but when he looked closer, he gasped when he noticed that one of the pillars was actually a woman sitting straight and still on a throne. Both she and the robes she wore were the exact same color as her icy surroundings. She would be about eight feet tall standing up, and she was so pale that she seemed to be made of the same ice as her robes and the room. He would have thought her a statue if not for the cold fire that blazed in her clear, blue eyes. This was indeed the Snow Queen – ruler of winter, commander of ice and snow, key to his victory. And now he knew where to find her! Nothing else to do but get going!

Hans tucked the mirror safely into his small satchel of supplies and threw his hood up before stepping to the edge of the alley. He glanced quickly up and down the street, ducked back into the shadows and waited for one watchman to pass, then made a break for it and ran towards the docks. He would stow away on the first ship he found heading north. Once they got to the next port, he would buy the supplies he needed for the rest of the journey. With such a powerful map to show him the way, he would be there in no time.

* * *

"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

The low, cold voice reverberated off every wall of the immense chamber, making it impossible for Hans to tell, at first, where it came from. After he'd made himself sufficiently dizzy examining the vast array of ice carved into the most dazzling, intricate shapes and designs all over the floor, walls, columns, and ceiling, he finally spotted the source of the unexpected greeting, far off to his left.

Hans strolled sedately towards to the speaker, an amused grin on his face. "I see introductions won't be necessary," he observed while still a few yards away, unable to stop looking every which way at the frozen splendor around him. Never had he seen such power...

"I assumed you knew that when you invited yourself in," the woman said tonelessly, standing motionless with her head bowed and her back to him.

"Pardon me – when I saw your doors standing wide open, _I_ assumed you were inviting _me_ in."

The slightest hint of laughter crept into the impassive monotone: "Most passersby would take that as a sign to run."

"I never was good at obeying rules."

"So I've seen."

"Then I trust you know why I'm here?" Hans' grin widened as he approached her, as calm and confident as ever.

"It wasn't difficult to surmise. I trust you know who I am?"

Hans indulged in a soft chuckle before replying, "I know everything about _you_, my lady..." His words disappeared into a gasp of shock as his eyes fell on the floor before him. He looked bewilderedly from the mirror in his left hand, to the woman (unbeknownst to him, smirking at his reaction), to the sight at her feet. Although the entire floor was the rough, uneven surface of a frozen lake, a large, amorphous patch before her was as flat and smooth as a pane of the finest glass, and within it, he could clearly see and hear two men – one with light skin and a finely trimmed beard, the other with darker skin and a thin layer of unkempt stubble – talking in low voices.

"It's impossible..." he muttered, stepping up to the edge. "The Mirror of Reason... it still exists!" He looked back at the mirror in his hand. "But it was destroyed."

"Indeed it was. Over the years, I've put most of it back together. A good many pieces are still out there, of course; the biggest one was found by a faerie, who figured out a way, using the magical properties of silver, to make it work like the whole – a window to the world that allows anyone who looks in it to see anything and everything. The piece you now hold in your hand, correct?"

Hans shook his head to clear it and thrust the mirror into his satchel. "Incredible... so that's how you knew – you've been watching me."

"I've been watching _her_." With that, the Snow Queen waved her arm, and the image of the two men faded away, leaving nothing but a blank mirror of unmelting ice, reflecting the ice above and around it. She finally turned around to face her visitor.

Watching _her_? Hans could think of only one motive behind that. "Then it's true... about the last queen and the king... about the curse."

"You knew it was, or you wouldn't have come all this way."

"I had to find out. I had nothing to lose."

The Snow Queen strolled over to her throne as she spoke. "And now that you know, what do you intend to do? Tell me – to what do I owe the honor of your visit, Prince Hans?"

Hans balled his hand into a fist and narrowed his eyes as he said, "You know what I want – I came here for revenge!"

The Snow Queen sighed in either boredom or annoyance or possibly both. "What exactly do you expect _me_ to do about that?"

"I want you to give me the same power you gave Elsa. I'll pay anything you want – my first born, my voice, my soul, anything, just tell me what I need to do to get it. It's the only way I can beat her. And you're the only one who can do it."

"Interesting idea," the Snow Queen mused aloud. "Unfortunately, you're over twenty years too late. I can bestow my powers on humans only when they're born."

"Why am I not surprised?" Hans groaned before he started pacing to relieve the frustration building up.

"Don't be too disappointed – even if I could, I doubt you would have had much of a chance against Elsa anyway."

Her tone and the look in her eyes made Hans say, "You're probably right – after all, she's more powerful than _you_."

A sharp gust of wind blew through the room, but his expression only grew more smug. "Just _as_ powerful as I am," he heard her mumble.

Hans nodded. "Yes, in hindsight, not the wisest move."

"My curse should have destroyed her! It would have if it hadn't been for..."

"Princess Anna," her guest finished for her. "Thanks to her, now that Elsa's able to control it, she's invincible."

"I'm well aware of that," the Snow Queen said, her voice still perfectly tranquil and even yet seething with fury. "If I had the means to take revenge against her, don't you think I would have done it years ago? There's nothing I can do – I can't touch her."

Hans suddenly raised his head and took his chin in his right hand as an idea struck him. "Maybe you've just been approaching from the wrong angle."

"This must be the part where you suggest I go after her sister or her people instead," his listener said, unimpressed.

"Of course not – she's more than capable of protecting those she loves..."

"DON'T SAY THAT WORD!"

Hearing the Snow Queen raise her voice like that was so unexpected that Hans actually stopped pacing and cringed at the sound. When she leaned back against her throne, he bowed slightly in her direction and said, "Forgive me, my queen. I only meant to say that, although neither of us would be a match for Elsa in battle, or have any hope of getting at... those she is willing to protect, there are other ways to defeat her. Her powers used to be torture for her, bringing her nothing but misery; with a little work, they could be that way again."

The Snow Queen snickered and shook her head. "Is that so? Just how would I go about doing that?"

"The same way you did to her mother. Only on a much bigger scale."

His bemused audience snapped to attention at that ominous statement. "What are you proposing?"

Hans folded his arms and stepped up to her throne. "Does that mean we have a deal?"

"Why would I make any deal with you?"

"Because we both want the same thing – revenge against Elsa. And with my genius combined with your power, we just might get it."

The Snow Queen stared into the distance for a moment, a look of immense satisfaction in her eyes. Hans concluded he'd made a good impression. Finally, she turned to him and asked, "What did you have in mind?"

Hans smiled in triumph as he said, "I should warn you, it will take some time."

"I've waited years to get my revenge against Gerda and Kai and their children; I have the patience to wait a little longer."

"How appropriate, considering what humans say about revenge..."


	3. Assembling

"What's the temperature today, JARVIS?"

"Last reading 30 minutes ago was 5 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit, sir – 10 degrees below 0 when factoring for the wind chill."

"Well, at least it's warmed up since yesterday," Tony Stark groaned as he looked down at the frozen wasteland that had once been New York City. A fresh supply of snowflakes whipped past the floor-to-ceiling window of his tower on the way down to the streets, adding to the several feet of snow, ice, salt, and charcoal that had built up over the past few weeks. Even the skyscrapers seemed to shiver in the relentless, record-breaking cold that held most of the country in its icy clutches. The native Californian groaned again and rubbed his brow as he thought of all the frigid weather behind him and all the apparently equally frigid weather still ahead – how did people work in this? "JARVIS, make a note for me to kill that new contractor! Ugh... there should be laws against doing business where it's this cold!"

Tony continued shaking his head and sighing in disgust as he turned his back on the depressing view and walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pot by the sofa, trying not to think of how Pepper must be gloating back in Malibu. Had she known about this when she volunteered to hold down the fort at Stark Industries while he went to take care of some things in New York? Reconstruction of the tower had been delayed too long by reconstruction of the house in Malibu, and he had come back with the resolve not to leave until it was finished. Maybe this was his punishment for being so stubborn... He cheered up as he realized that, no matter how cold it was, he would rather be here finishing Stark Tower – Mark II, sealing new deals, and discussing new arrangements than back in sunny California with all the boring legal work, boring paperwork, and boring legal paperwork of the office... maybe... just barely...

He was still debating the question when the doors across the room slid open. "Good morning," Bruce Banner yawned as he strolled inside.

"Morning," Tony said back. "Pour you a cup?"

The doctor, who, as a rule, thought it wise to avoid caffeine, shook his head and held up the steaming cup in his hand. "I'm good, thanks," he said as Tony caught the hot scent of chamomile tea.

"That makes one of us," said Tony as he walked back to the window with his friend. "I'm telling you, a few more days like this, and I'm gonna pack up and move this tower to Georgia."

"It's freezing there, too."

There was a pause before Tony gasped in horror, "It's just never gonna end, is it? The snow, the cold... it's never gonna stop... We're just gonna be trapped in this Ice Age forever..."

"I didn't know you hated snow so much," Bruce said with a grin of amusement at his friend's attitude.

"Doesn't everybody by now?"

"Not me... I like the snow..." Bruce shook himself out of his reverie before it could begin and turned aside from the sight. "... But I hate the cold. If it weren't for you, I'd be..."

"Don't mention it, pal. We're teammates; we gotta stick together. You needed a home, and I just happened to have the perfect one."

"Thanks – I don't know what I would've done without it." Bruce shuddered at the thought of drifting through the underworld in his old lifestyle under these conditions. Nothing less extreme could have forced him to accept Stark's offer of a place to stay this winter. To his pleasant surprise, it hadn't been as awkward as he'd expected. Rooming with Tony Stark wasn't so bad, if you didn't mind the constant wisecracks and the constant, random interrogations...

"Guess that's one good thing that came out of this polar vortex," Tony said with a smile. His expression changed as he said, "I never minded before, but I never knew what snow _was_ until this winter. I have been to almost every corner of the globe, seen every possible climate this planet can cook up, but nothing I've seen has _ever_ prepared me for something like this. I never realized just how cold Cold could get until now. And now that I _have_ seen it, I _hate_ it! If I _never_ see another snowflake again, it'll be too soon!"

"Well, there's no need to let it make you so angry. Don't get so worked up about it. You need to stay calm... stay cool..." Tony turned and glared at the man grinning broadly back at him. "Come on, I couldn't resist."

"Let's get one thing straight: if anyone's gonna be making lame cold puns around here, it's gonna be me," Tony said threateningly.

Bruce shook his head mockingly. "Ooh, temper, temper..."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Immensely – please, continue."

Tony smiled and said brightly, "Sorry, I think I'm done for now," took a drink from his cup, and turned back to face the window.

Bruce did likewise and said, "Too bad – when you can't get angry, nothing's more entertaining than watching someone else get angry."

"I thought you were 'always angry.' "

"Not on the outside."

"What does that mean, anyway?"

"It's complicated."

"I'm sure it is, so start explaining."

"Why, you want tips?"

"I might need some if you keep stonewalling every time I ask. Why so secretive?" Tony asked suspiciously.

"Self-preservation."

"I have ways of finding out secrets, as you may recall."

"Not mine."

"Wanna bet?"

"Bet I could find out your secrets faster."

"Me?" Tony laughed. "I'm an open book. I have _no_ secrets. Pepper's made sure of that."

"Heard from her lately?" Bruce asked in a different tone.

"Talked for a while last night. This is the longest we've been apart since we got together."

"She coming up any time soon? You two designed this place together, didn't you?" Bruce asked next, looking around the room.

"We couldn't both leave the office," Tony explained. "Besides, now I can enjoying seeing that gorgeous, awestruck look on her face when she sees the new place for the first time after it's finished."

The words were undoubtedly true, but the bravado in which they were spoken didn't fool Bruce. "You miss her a lot, huh? It must be rough. See, took me less than a minute to learn a secret of yours."

"As much as you miss Betty, I'm sure," Tony replied with a smirk before taking another sip of his coffee.

Bruce cursed himself for providing that opening. "Don't start that again, Stark..."

"How's she doing by the way?" Tony asked, ignoring the request.

One frustrated sigh and eyeroll later, Bruce managed to answer, "Last I heard, she and Samson were doing great."

"Oh, no, they're still together?" Tony asked with sincere disappointment and sympathy.

"Sure, why not?" Bruce said with sincere happiness and relief. "He's a great guy."

"A great guy who stole another guy's girl," Tony scoffed.

"She had no idea I was ever coming back. She's too good to waste her life pining away for one guy forever – where's the virtue in that? I'm glad she moved on. Something we should all emulate..."

Bruce started with fright as he realized what he'd just hinted, but, fortunately, Stark was too hot on his current trail to pick up the scent of another: "He ratted you out."

"He was trying to protect her."

"He knows you're back now, and he still..."

"He did nothing – _I_ left _her_. I haven't talked to her since Harlem."

"Why?"

Bruce would have refused to answer or walked away like he had the million other times they'd had this conversation, but that had gotten tedious. "I couldn't ask her to deal with... all this. She deserves better than that."

"Did you ask _her_ opinion on that?" Tony asked matter-of-factly.

"Wouldn't change my opinion. What am I supposed to do – ask a beautiful, healthy, successful, young woman to give up her career, home, life, and future to go on the run through obscure, backwater villages until some psycho finds me and takes her hostage, or she dies of yellow fever or dysentery or sleeping sickness? What would be the point? We could never be together... not really. Never settle down, never have a real home, never have children..." He left it at that.

"You went back to her once," was all Tony could say.

"You want me to say it?" There was an impatient edge in his voice that instantly put Tony on his guard. "Yeah, I loved her, I admit it, but it never would have worked out. I accepted that years ago. She tried to help me, I sent her back the necklace I owed her, and that was the end of it. I moved on, just like she did. It was for the best."

"For her sake, I hope _she_ sees it that way."

"I _did_ write to her. After New York. She understands. She was happy with Samson; I wasn't surprised when she said they were back together."

"Well, I'm glad she had him to comfort her," Tony said with bitter sarcasm.

"Me, too," Bruce said sincerely. "He's a good person. He's got more common sense than the entire military combined."

"Not exactly a difficult feat."

"You know what he saw the first time he saw the Hulk? He didn't see an evil, mindless monster – he saw a victim under a vicious, unprovoked attack, trying to protect her. He actually paid attention to what he was seeing and concluded that just because he couldn't understand it didn't make it evil. He wasn't automatically afraid of him – he trusted him. Enough to defend him to General Ross. You know how rare it is for people to respond so rationally to the Hulk? I'll never get to tell him how grateful I am for that or how much I respect him, but..."

"How do you know this? She tell you?"

"Yeah, in her letter. Ross told her. Not with the same judgment, I'm sure. What, you don't believe her?"

Tony shrugged. "Why would she lie about that?" he conceded.

"Exactly." Bruce turned from his friend to the landscape before them with a sigh. "If it hadn't been for the accident, I never would've left her, but what-could-have-been doesn't matter. If it couldn't be me, I'm glad she found him – I can't think of anyone better."

"You know, you... actually sound like you mean that," Tony observed.

"I do."

"I believe you," Tony said slowly. "I was wrong. I'm sorry."

"Good – took you long enough."

"So, what's her name, then?"

"What are you talking about?" Bruce knew that he'd taken a split second too long to respond.

"The one who's been on your mind who isn't Betty."

Bruce smiled and shook his head – the guy never gave up... "There has been no one else," he said completely truthfully.

Tony merely chuckled. Bruce knew he didn't believe him; Stark had been on a mission ever since he'd moved in. Before that, Bruce had been able to rest easy in the knowledge that his friend's jokes about how he needed a girlfriend were just that: innocent jokes. He thought it was safest to ignore such remarks, so he had never responded – not once, as if he didn't hear them – but, apparently, that had only aroused Stark's suspicion. He'd started directly asking if there was anyone special out there waiting for him, but Bruce calmly denied it every time. Stark eventually seemed to give up, but it turned out he was only luring his target into a false sense of security.

Bruce still couldn't forgive himself for being so foolhardy that evening. It was a week after he'd moved into Stark Tower. They were standing here, just like they were now, discussing thermonuclear physics, while watching a light snowfall, the kind that wasn't violent and windy but so gentle that it mesmerized you as you watched it sprinkle the world with a coat of glittering, silver dust. The sight was so entrancing with the setting sun and emerging stars and evoked one particular memory so strongly that Bruce had slipped and inadvertently let his guard down. After a few minutes of silence, occasionally broken only by the most meaningless exchanges and "Yes" or "No" answers, with no segue, no preamble, no warning at all, Stark had suddenly asked, "Was she pretty?", and, without thinking, Bruce had blurted out, "The most beautiful woman in the world," before he realized what he was saying.

Ever since then, Stark had been relentless in his quest to find out the story behind his friend's supposed mystery woman. Today was no exception. "Just tell me how you met her," he begged.

"Met who?"

"That's okay – I already know," Tony said with a very satisfied smile. In the most serious voice, he continued: "You wake up in the middle of nowhere – maybe a forest or a meadow or a moor – half-dressed, confused, no idea where you are. Maybe it's cold or too hot or about to start raining – anyway, you need to find shelter fast. Probably follow an old fence or a dirt path or a stream. You walk for a few hours, ready to pass out from fatigue and hunger, when you find it: a cozy little barn, in great condition, so obviously still inhabited and used, but, fortunately, no people or animals in sight right now. So you go in, climb up to the hayloft, maybe grab a horse blanket or two, curl up in a corner out of sight, and go to sleep, grateful that you found a warm, dry place to sleep for the night.

"After what feels like a few minutes, you wake up, stiff but fully rested, listen for any sounds of life, hear nothing, assume you've gone undetected, and decide to sneak away before anyone can catch you. You climb down the ladder, about to make a run for it, when you see it: a basket with a loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese, some apples or peaches or pears, a bottle of milk, and, folded next to it, a complete set of clothes. At first, you can't believe it's real. Then, you think it might be a trap – maybe a net will fall on you as soon as you touch it. But this is no time to ask questions. So you eat. You dress. You pack up the leftovers. Your first instinct is to get as far away as you can while you have the chance, but you can't without finding who did it and thanking them. You go outside and look around until you spot the house a short distance away. You know it's madness, but you walk up, keeping your eye out for any sign of human life. You can't believe it, but you reach the front door without incident.

"You're about to knock when she comes around the corner from the henhouse with a basket full of eggs – the sweet, kind, little farm girl who helped you in your time of need. All you plan to do is thank her, but you owe her more than that. You offer to help by doing some odd jobs around the place for her. You talk for a few hours, stop to eat lunch, you talk some more, night falls... before you know it, you're good friends. After a few days, you trust her enough to tell her the truth. She's not afraid; she feels your pain. She wants to help. She tells you you'll be safe there.

"You don't want to put her in danger, but you can't bear to go. You stay for a few more days, then a few weeks, settle into a routine. Before long, it feels like this is the life you've always lived, and you can't imagine any other. Then, tragically, it happens. Maybe an ex-boyfriend who can't take 'No' for answer finds her. Maybe she was once a spy who had a change of heart and tried to start over, hiding where she was sure they would never find her, but they do. Maybe it's you they come looking for. Either way, it happens, and when you wake up, you can't bear to go back. But every day, you wonder what happened to her, if she's all right, if she still thinks about you, and, more than anything, what she would say if you went back."

After a moment or two of bewildered silence, Bruce finally blinked and asked, "Where do you come up with this stuff?"

"Ray Bradbury did, actually. Doesn't matter – these things always happen the same way."

"There was no farm girl."

"She could have been a nurse – found you unconscious, and her concerned face was the first thing you saw when you came to..."

"There was no nurse."

"A convenience store clerk who he saved from being mugged on her way home from work, so, instead of fleeing him in fear, she followed him to thank him or help him, eventually found you, and offered you a hiding place in her basement or attic to repay you."

"There was no store clerk."

"Then what? I can keep guessing – you'll get sick of it long before I do."

"You'll never guess..." By the time Bruce caught himself, it was too late.

"Guess what?" Tony asked eagerly. "What she does? Where she lives? Who is she?"

"There's nothing to guess."

Stark looked disturbingly content as he nodded. "Oh, I get it – you don't know, either. You didn't get the chance to learn her name or anything else about her. You were the mysterious fugitive that fate blew across her path for an hour, a day, two at the most, and left as quickly and mysteriously as you came."

"You're wrong." Stark's expression told Bruce he'd responded too quickly that time. "Honest." After another pause, he added, "You must be getting desperate – not much of an exciting relationship for you to obsess over in that scenario, is there?"

"Are you kidding? That's the best set-up of all!"

"Why?" Bruce asked in genuine confusion.

Tony just smiled for a moment before saying, very gravely, "Because it's irresistibly tantalizing. Sooner or later, you _have_ to go back."

"You think you know everything. What makes you such an expert?"

"Just what I see with my own eyes." Tony raised his eyebrow as he looked his friend right in the eye. "Let's go over the clues. You ask me at least once a day how things are going between me and Pepper – that tells me relationships are on your mind. There are significant gaps in your past that you refuse to discuss – either too painful or potentially dangerous. You have truly moved on from Betty – no one completely moves on until they find someone new. From time to time, you get that far away, happy, yet melancholy look in your eyes as you remember her. But it's uncertain, showing there are questions that remain unanswered. It's particularly strong when you look over the horizon – that means she's far away. Before it passes, you sigh and shake your head – that's you telling yourself to forget about her, but you never do. It never lasts long, but it always comes back. All this evidence and more indicates that he's not in love, but he's well on his way."

"When did you become Sherlock Holmes?" Bruce asked him with a laugh, seemingly unimpressed.

Tony shrugged nonchalantly. "Have it your way, Banner." He turned around and strolled toward a small table with a fruit bowl. "But trust me when I say..." He selected an apple, shined it on his shirt, and prepared to bite into it as he finished, "... nothing escapes the eagle eye of Tony Stark."

He was just raising the apple to his mouth when an arrow flew past his face, knocking the fruit out of his hand and impaling it in the far wall. Tony rolled his eyes in annoyance as he turned back to the doors. "Hey, watch it with that thing! What, do I look like Seneca Crane to you?" The token dark, brooding loner of the Avengers said nothing as he slung his bow over his shoulder and marched into the room. "How did you get in here anyway?"

JARVIS' voice rang out from the atmosphere: "You gave all the Avengers full access, sir, as a precaution should anyone need a place to stay in an emergency while you were not present."

"Well, did you check him out first? How do you know he's not an evil clone? Or brainwashed?" Tony asked his virtual assistant.

"How do I know _you're_ not an evil clone or brainwashed?" Agent Barton asked as he retrieved his arrow.

"That would explain a lot of things," Bruce mused aloud.

The archer flung back his arm as if intending to toss the apple back to Stark but seemed to think better of it and took a bite out of it himself. "That's going on your bill," Tony informed his new guest.

"Didn't know you were here, Dr. Banner," said Barton.

"I have a habit of turning up in unexpected places," the doctor replied.

"I know what that's like."

"And what brings the famous Hawkeye to Chateau de Stark today?" asked Tony.

"An invitation to the Helicarrier," Hawkeye answered. "Apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. decided it would be more efficient to skip the phone calls you never answer or return and just send someone to collect you in person from the start."

"Smart move," Tony observed. "I guess I should be flattered they chose such an elite agent to deliver my message."

"Just the agent they figured had the best chance of getting inside. Evidently, they were right."

"And what global crisis is on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agenda today?"

Hawkeye gestured with his arm to the snow behind them. "That."

"A pane of glass?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"The weather?" a puzzled Bruce wondered.

"Persistent, extreme, record-breaking cold," Hawkeye elaborated. "Apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks there's something unnatural about it. They haven't told me anything specific – you want to hear more, you'll have to ask Fury."

"Unnatural?" Bruce echoed instantly.

"Loki?" Tony asked with trepidation.

"Unlikely – according to Selvig, he died during the Convergence incident in London."

"They find a body?" Bruce asked.

"No. Still unlikely – not his M.O."

"Yeah, Loki likes to be in the spotlight, not working behind the scenes," Tony agreed.

Bruce cleared his throat and asked, "So they think all this cold and snow is caused by, what? More aliens? A terrorist with a weather machine? Some new natural phenomenon? Magic?"

"No idea," Hawkeye told him.

"Obviously, it's something else they're not prepared to deal with," said Tony, before his voice took on a dramatic, ominous sound. "Meaning, this looks like a job for the Avengers..."

"You coming or not?" the deadpan Hawkeye asked.

"Why not?" Tony decided with a shrug. "Beats sitting here watching the world freeze."

"I'm coming, too," Bruce said abruptly.

Hawkeye raised a confused eyebrow at the man who, last he remembered, couldn't stay far enough away from S.H.I.E.L.D., but Stark simply put on a fake British accent and said, "Quickly, Dr. Watson," as he snapped his fingers, causing all the lights to go out, one by one. He then said in his normal voice, "JARVIS, hold my calls, lock up after us. If we're not back in three hours, send out a search party."

"As you wish, sir," the air said obligingly.

"Quinjet's on your helipad. Grab something warm," was Hawkeye's last remark as he led the way out of the room.

* * *

"Agent Barton, Tony Stark, and Dr. Banner are being escorted to the lab now, Director."

"Copy that."

A young crew member looked up from his screen and turned his chair around. "Sir, is it really... safe to have Dr. Banner aboard?" he asked timidly.

"Banner's the last thing you should be worrying about right now, ensign," Fury replied.

The young man nodded and turned back to his monitor as Maria Hill looked up at her boss and asked, "You really think this will require the Avengers' involvement again, sir?"

"Unusual problems usually require unusual measures and even more unusual solutions," the Director answered her. "Take over, Hill." Maria nodded as Fury turned and marched out the door, leaving the bridge.

Five minutes later, the three men waiting in a small laboratory on Level 4 were joined by the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Good work, Agent Barton," Fury said to Hawkeye before turning to their guests. "Welcome aboard, gentlemen. Glad you could both join us today. Good to see you again, Dr. Banner."

"Hope you don't mind me tagging along, sir," Bruce said sheepishly as Fury shook his hand.

Tony stepped up to them both with the confident assertion, "Of course he doesn't – two heads are better than one, right?"

Fury stiffly held out his hand. "Mr. Stark."

"Please, call me Iron Man," Tony said, shaking his hand vigorously. "So, when do we start?"

"Now," answered Fury.

"Now?" Tony repeated incredulously. "What about the rest of the gang? Where's the big guy?"

"Last we heard, back on Asgard," Fury informed him.

"Mister Rogers?"

"On assignment.

"Kim Possible?"

"Same assignment."

"Not much of a party – no offense, guys."

"Good, because this isn't a party." Fury strolled across the room to a blank screen and pushed a few buttons on a nearby panel. "This is a very serious matter." The screen lit up with a map of the world. "S.H.I.E.L.D. believes the fate of the planet might be at risk."

Stark crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Again?"

Ignoring the comment, Fury continued: "Our scientists have been monitoring weather patterns for the past two months." Said patterns appeared highlighted on the map, moving across different sections in waves. "As you are no doubt aware, much of the world, particularly North America, has been hit by almost unprecedented cold and snowfall this winter."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Stark said with his typical sarcasm. Dr. Banner, on the other hand, stepped closer to the screen and looked intently at the display.

"Believed to be unnatural in origin?" asked Hawkeye.

Fury stepped away from the control panel and pointed to a northern section of the map. "At first, it was blamed on a particularly strong polar vortex, feeding extremely cold gusts of air into the jetstream and sending them across the globe."

"Why now?" an annoyed Tony groaned.

"That's exactly what we were wondering," was Fury's answer. "We took a closer look to find out what made this one so strong, but our findings only raised more questions."

"What findings?" Bruce asked. Tony couldn't help noticing he sounded worried.

Fury went on: "Closer examination revealed the 'polar vortex' didn't originate at the North Pole, as was initially believed." He gestured to an area on the map between the North Pole, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. "All our data shows it's coming from here." He placed his finger over a patch of light swirling around in a circle like a hurricane.

"I take it that's not normal?" Tony guessed.

"No," Fury confirmed. "The cold front seems to be radiating from a central point, like heat from a fire. Within the scope of our knowledge, there's no natural process that could cause this phenomenon."

"What's in that area?" Hawkeye asked, stepping up next to Bruce.

"The location only deepens the mystery. As far as most of the world's concerned, it's deserted." Fury tapped the spot twice, causing the screen to zoom in on what looked like deserted ocean. "However..." Fury tapped the upper-right corner of the screen, causing a new panel to appear. He pressed some of the new buttons and swiped his hand over the area, causing several new land masses to appear.

"It's not?" Tony guessed next.

"Not even close." Fury continued to move his hand over different portions of the map as he explained. "First of all, the climate is unusual – despite the northern location, its summers can get as warm and sunny as Florida's. Second, it consists mostly of countries that have actively refused to embrace modern technology and industrial developments – the people still live as if in the medieval or Renaissance periods. Thus, they've restricted most of their trade and interaction to within a secluded network, cutting themselves off from the rest of the world. The only modernized nation any of them have been known to communicate with is..."

"... Maldonia," Bruce whispered, to his companions' surprise.

Fury paused before continuing. "Yes – Maldonia, here to the southwest. We have very little data on the rest – the Southern Isles, Weselton, Arendelle, Corona..."

Tony wrinkled his forehead and began snapping his fingers, like he was trying to remember something. "Wait a minute, Corona – where have I heard that name before? Corona, Corona... weren't they a major ally of ours during the Cold War?"

"That was Coron**i**a, back in central Europe," Fury corrected him. "And, yes, they were, although our alliance with them ended soon after the death of King Charles the First. Maldonia's pretty much the gateway between the cloistered kingdoms and the rest of the world; they became a major partner of ours after the First World War, when the prince married a U.S. citizen. Other than that, we've never had any contact with Corona or any of the rest of them. And strict international laws and agreements have been signed, ensuring their privacy."

"Which is why you haven't flown in to investigate," Tony concluded.

Fury nodded and once again pointed to the center of the swirling vortex of cold air. "Something supernatural is going on here, to the north, but, officially, we don't have the authority to enter that region."

"What's up there?" Hawkeye asked.

"As far as we know, deserted, year-round frozen wilderness."

"As far as you know," Tony repeated.

"That's north of Arendelle," Bruce observed, his shoulders relaxing as if some tension had just been released. "A-and... Weselton and the rest."

"Pretty far away, actually, especially for the locals and their primitive means of travel," the Director added, stepping away from the map. "But it's still in the protected zone."

"Not much we can do then," Tony remarked with a grin and a shrug.

Fury amended that to, "Not much _S.H.I.E.L.D._ can do."

Tony was about to respond when Banner asked, "And civilians?"

Fury turned to him and said, "I have no authority to prevent private individuals from crossing their borders."

Hawkeye looked at the map and asked, "What are those borders like? Do they shoot trespassers on site?"

"They welcome outsiders who come peacefully," Fury explained. "Armies don't typically give that impression."

Tony began pacing around the room. "So if, say, an American businessman were to take a private vacation to that area, with a friend or two, and happened to look around, it wouldn't be cause for an international incident."

Fury grinned knowingly at the man. "Not at all."

"Finding loopholes around red tape... I like that," Tony said with approval.

Bruce stepped towards the two of them. "What would we be looking for?"

"Anything suspicious or out of the ordinary," the Director answered. "Anything that could cause this brutal cold spell." The doctor looked apprehensively back at the map. Fury exchanged an interested look with Stark before saying, "I'm pleasantly surprised you're so eager to help us, Dr. Banner."

Bruce turned around to face the others. "I'm eager to get to the bottom of this, Director." Anticipating a protest after what happened during their last partnership, he added, "You can trust me. I promise you there won't be any problems."

His face fell when Fury said, "I expect there _will_ be. That's why I need men I know can handle unexpected problems." Bruce relaxed as his meaning sank in. "There are rumors that these kingdoms are full of strange creatures with bizarre powers."

"Magic?" Tony wondered.

"Possibly," Fury said doubtingly.

"Fun. When do we leave?"

"Leave for what, Stark?"

Hawkeye raised his head. "Director, I think I'd like to take some personal leave for a while."

"Granted. Before you begin, please take the Quinjet and escort Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner back to New York."

"Yes, sir."

The four men left the lab, three of them trailing behind Director Fury.

"Didn't expect you to join us," Tony said to Hawkeye.

"I'm a soldier – I go where the action is. It's been too quiet here. I needed a break from this place for a while."

"Aw, don't worry," Tony said sympathetically. "I'm sure Natasha misses you, too."

Hawkeye didn't seem to have heard him. "I'm surprised you agreed to go, Stark."

"Tony Stark never passes up a chance for adventure. Especially when it comes with a chance of stopping this cold.

Hawkeye looked past Stark to their silent companion. "What about you, Doctor? Why'd you volunteer?"

Banner answered softly, at first, "Curious," but then raised his head and said more firmly, "To see what's going on."

A skeptical Tony asked, "And what else are you worried about?"

"What I always worry about."

"Save the worry for when we find whatever's out there," Agent Barton advised him.

"I hope it's not another alien," Stark said with a wince.

"I hope it's not magic," was Hawkeye's wish. "We won't be able to take any S.H.I.E.L.D. gear with us except my jet."

"Stark Industries has all the gear we'll need," Tony assured him.

The two continued discussing plans while Bruce looked over his shoulder down the hall at the lab they had just left. He kept seeing the map they'd just been shown in his mind. Of all places... He'd been teleported back there as soon as Fury brought up that region. His eyes had been drawn right to the spot on the screen like a magnet. It was almost impossible to believe – he had been sure he would never see it again, and now he was going back...

He shook his head as he recalled the exact location of their target. _It's not Arendelle, it's not Arendelle_... exactly what he'd repeated in his head once he saw that the source of the mysterious cold spell lay farther north. Until then, the question of whether or not he should tell the others had been burning painfully in his mind the entire time – it was a matter of global safety, after all. What a relief it had been when he realized there was no need! It wasn't Arendelle. It couldn't be her. It couldn't have anything to do with her. They'd go in, find the problem, fix it, and get out without ever going anywhere near her territory.

He would be closer than he had been in two years, but that was all.

* * *

"This was one of our bestsellers," Tony explained as his two teammates tried on the protective suits he'd given them. "Took the lab three years to develop the right combination to make this material. Lightweight, durable, waterproof, and warmer than wearing a parka in the Sahara. All the rage for the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines."

"Impressive, Stark," Hawkeye admitted as he pulled on the jacket, covering his muscular, perfectly-sculpted arms.

"I'm sure your fangirls would disagree," Tony remarked with a smirk, "but it's a necessary evil."

"I hope you packed extras," Bruce said uneasily, noting that the pants didn't stretch much.

"Don't think we'll need them, but yes," Tony assured him. He gripped each of his wristbands, checking that they were firmly locked in place, and tapped the red, rectangular case on the floor with his foot. "Suit's already packed. Back-up suit is about to be packed... Hey, I thought the rule was no S.H.I.E.L.D. gear."

"This is _my_ gear," Hawkeye informed him as he checked his quivers full of different arrows and the string on his bow. "Had to leave my sidearm, though."

"These'll probably fit in much better where we're going anyway, if we run into any locals" Bruce theorized.

"Speaking of fitting in, what languages do you think they speak there?" Tony asked.

Bruce kept his mouth firmly closed while Hawkeye answered, "If not their own, probably the languages of the countries closest to them – Norwegian, Swedish..."

"Either of you speak any of 'em?"

"Little Danish, lot of Norwegian," Bruce ventured to answer. "You?"

"Are you kidding? I speak more languages than Scrooge McDuck," Tony said flatly.

"I don't," said the laconic Hawkeye."

"Then I have a special gift for you, Agent Barton." Stark handed him a small, almost undetectable earpiece. "It's a receiver, microphone, and amplifier, with a special translator program installed. I invented it for meetings with foreign customers and traders. You set it for two languages – say, Norwegian and English – and anything anyone near you says in Norwegian, it'll automatically translate to English in your ear, and anything it hears you whisper in English, it'll rebroadcast at an audible volume in Norwegian so others can hear you."

"What if I want to talk in English?"

"Just talk at a normal volume – it'll ignore it. Probably won't be many opportunities for charging the battery where we're heading, but I packed plenty of spare. And performance should be unaffected by the cold temperatures."

"Not bad, Stark," was Hawkeye's only comment as he fitted the gadget in his ear.

"Too bad there's no way I can get this tower finished in the next five minutes, but I guess it's gonna have to wait a little longer after all."

"Pepper mind waiting?" Bruce asked him.

Tony sighed before he answered. "Longest good-bye we've ever had. I think she wanted to come, but she didn't ask. Knew we couldn't wait for her."

"Well, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner you can get back to her," Hawkeye pointed out, hoisting his bow and one quiver of arrows over his shoulder. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready enough – let's go," Tony answered as he picked up the case and headed for the door. "Bye, JARVIS."

"Good-bye, sir. See you at the next battle," said the AI before signing off. The lights went out as the three men made their way up to the top of Stark Tower.

Hawkeye climbed into the pilot's seat and powered up the Quinjet while the other two stowed the rest of the gear. "The game's afoot, Dr. Watson," Tony said in his mock British accent as they took their seats.

"May the odds be ever in our favor." The two passengers stared blankly at each other and then at Agent Barton when they heard him say that. "Just wanted to say it before Stark did."

"Well, that takes all the fun out of it," Tony whined.

"That was the idea," Hawkeye said as the jets fired up. "Prepare for takeoff."

"Prepared," said Tony.

"Let the non-existent mission not begin," said Bruce.

Hawkeye finished with, "We're off," as the jet lifted off from Stark Tower. The snow had stopped, and the men had a clear view of the city as they flew northeast into the slate gray winter sky.

Bruce let Stark annoy Agent Barton by asking what every button did while he stared silently out the window. He wasn't half as worried about this mission as he was the last time – he was working with friends, not strangers, and he hadn't been drafted against his will. Whatever they found out there, it had to be easier to deal with than Loki and the Chitauri. Just a few more days, and they'd be there... He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead in frustration as he realized he was actually looking forward to this trip! This was ridiculous! He was _still_ thinking about how close he was going, about seeing her again...

_Forget it, Banner. Don't be such an idiot! _He instinctively checked his pulse – one, two, three, four – but, no, he was fine. He had to be practical – he couldn't afford to get too angry at himself. _It's been two years. Two years._ Two years was a long time for some things; remembering people you'd known only for a day was one of them, no matter how much of a difference they'd made in your life... _Two years._ They weren't going there, but even if they had been, it wouldn't matter. There was nothing waiting for him there...


	4. Crossing the First Threshold

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now leaving the North Sea, and if you look to your left, you will see the picturesque archipelago known as the Southern Isles, which, twelve years ago, was brought almost to the brink of collapse by a civil war as not one, not two, but _three_ princes rose up and attempted to seize the throne from their brother the king (and each other), while two _other_ princes tried to take advantage of the chaos and divide the kingdom, each declaring himself king over his own province. The convoluted mess of rivals to be fought forced all the opposing rebel factions to spread themselves so thin that they eventually had no choice but to surrender, with no consolation other than the fact that failure was shared equally all around. The moral of this story? Don't have thirteen sons." Tony closed the file, wiped the screen, and looked up from the tablet in his hands. "Boy, can you imagine what Asgard would look like now if they had thirteen princes instead of just two?"

"If they were all like Loki, there would _be_ no Asgard by now," Bruce said from his seat on the other side of the jet.

"I can't believe none of them ever did the math and considered there might be easier ways to take a throne than fighting your way through twelve opponents," Tony said in wonder.

"How much conflict has there been since then?" Bruce asked.

"No idea," Tony admitted. "That's all she wrote."

"I told you S.H.I.E.L.D. has hardly any information on these kingdoms," Hawkeye called back from his seat at the helm.

Tony stood up and walked to the front of the jet. "Hardly any is better than nothing. 'Knowledge is power' isn't just an ideally fortune cookie-sized truism."

The blizzard outside seemed to be strengthening, enveloping the aircraft in a white cocoon and swallowing up the last shred of visibility. Hawkeye made some adjustments to the settings on the control panel and, still without turning around, asked, "What's the latest report on this cold wave?"

Tony was already tapping away at the tablet's screen. "It's still cold. But if you want more details... Oh, look, Niagara Falls has frozen, and... a major snowstorm has left almost all of North Carolina stranded at school, work, or on the road. Boy, where's global warming when you need it?"

"Niagara Falls frozen?" Banner gasped, getting up and taking the tablet from Stark to see for himself. He wasn't joking. "Unbelievable."

Hawkeye shook his head as he struggled to keep them on course. "If we can't find out what's causing this, things are going to start getting serious."

Bruce raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Right... I'd hate to see what that would look like."

"How far are we from the source?" Tony asked, looking from one side of the windows to the other.

"If the location S.H.I.E.L.D. pinpointed is accurate, just a few hours," Hawkeye answered. "We might have been there by now if it weren't for this weather."

Bruce knew he wasn't exaggerating; the Quinjet had put every airliner in the world to shame yesterday, crossing the Atlantic in only four hours. They had spent the night in London (Stark had gotten them rooms at a hotel and somehow made arrangements for them to stash the jet overnight at the airport) before taking off early this morning and flying north. Bruce would have enjoyed it more if he hadn't felt the urge to look over his shoulder every five seconds, paranoid that every person who saw him knew he was the monster they had seen five years ago. The gossip they'd heard while they were there about something big that had happened in Greenwich a few months ago hadn't helped. Between the bad memories and the merciless cold, he had been much more eager to leave and get on with the mission than he had been to stop... which, no doubt, explained his negligence when they had started discussing the next day's itinerary.

Stark had assumed that they would have to visit the proverbial "gateway" country of Maldonia first and was obviously disappointed when Hawkeye told him it wasn't necessary – Maldonia was simply the only part of the modern world that dealt with the kingdoms living in medieval stasis on a regular basis, not a liaison. Stark, curious to see as much of this part of the world as possible, tried to argue they ought to go anyway – the locals would likely be the most willing to help them and to share any useful information they might have, right? Bruce had agreed with Hawkeye that it was too far out of the way, eventually saying, "You're not missing anything, Stark – there's nothing to see there."

He still hadn't realized what he'd revealed until Stark had asked slyly, "Really? How would you know?"

Bruce had the duration of one deep breath to come up with an answer that wouldn't invite more discussion. He had settled for: "I... ended up there once. After an incident."

"You've never mentioned that before."

"It was only for a day. Nice place – nothing exciting."

"Only one day, huh?" Stark had said skeptically.

"One day, one night, and part of the next morning, if you want to be technical."

"Fun – meet anyone interesting there?"

Bruce had actually grinned. Let him fish, as long as he was fishing in the wrong place. "No."

He had walked away, but, of course, Stark had followed him. "You sure?"

"Nobody more interesting than the innkeeper."

"Make any new friends?"

"Not one."

"Anything happen while you were there?"

"No." Bruce had been able to look him right in the eye and say in complete honesty, "Nothing happened, and I don't know anyone in Maldonia," before calmly picking up the newspaper. His cool attitude gave Stark no choice but to accept that he was telling the truth, and, to his relief, the subject had dropped. The last thing he needed was for Stark to start teasing him about the one friend he had made in these parts. He'd never hear the end of it. The playboy would blow it all out of proportion, jump to all the wrong conclusions, make all sorts of crazy assumptions, and the jokes would never cease – better if he knew nothing about it. It was nothing important, nothing to get worked up about...

Bruce quickly jerked his head around and sat back down to prevent himself from looking at the map on the console; fortunately, he had managed to stay out of all discussions related to their route since then. Except for that one slip up, he had been careful to ignore all references to their course, progress, direction, and destination ever since they'd left New York. He knew roughly where they were going, but he forbade himself from knowing where they were at any time. This ensured that he would obey his order not to waste time calculating how close he was, wondering if they would end up passing through there, or gazing out the window in that direction. That part had been easy. Not so easy was the order not to mentally retrace the journey he'd once made through here, sailing to Corona, then Maldonia, and finally riding into Denmark. He tried to focus on the much more pressing issue at hand, but when you were traveling a long distance with nothing to do but talk and think, your thoughts had a tendency to run wild. He hoped they would get there soon; unlike Stark, he certainly wasn't disappointed they weren't making any more stops along the way...

Stark walked up next to him, interrupting his thoughts. "Some trip, huh? The view's like staring into that white light above you in the dentist's chair."

Bruce cleared his throat and said, "I've had worse trips."

Stark looked down at him and smiled. "What was the best trip you've ever had?"

Bruce shrugged and tried to sound nonchalant as he said, "New York had the happiest ending, I guess."

"Besides that."

"Well, it's a long list to narrow down."

"I've got time – what else are we gonna do, play Spot The Snowflake?"

"Whatever you do, I would sit down," came Hawkeye's voice from up front. "The weather's getting rough."

"_Getting_?" Tony said incredulously, only to be thrown off his feet by a bout of turbulence.

"I warned him," Hawkeye sighed. "Hang on."

Bruce pulled Stark into the seat next to him as the small craft continued to jolt and shake in the wind. "Now I know what riding on the Enterprise feels like," Tony quipped. After a few minutes, he amended it to, "Make that Dorothy's farmhouse." The thick snow continued to block out any view of the sky or ground or sea down below as the jet pitched and rolled dangerously in the tempest.

"This isn't good," Hawkeye said softly but nonetheless ominously.

"What'd we fly into?"

"Nothing on the radar – it's like it came up around us." The sudden storm continued to knock the Quinjet around like a pinball. It was twice as unsettling to know this was happening to something built to deal with much more severe threats. Everyone on board knew this shouldn't have been happening!

"What's going on?" Bruce called to him.

"I can't get her stable. It's like the wind's trying to knock us out of the air."

"It can do that?" Stark asked.

"If it can, S.H.I.E.L.D. better find some new engineers." Hawkeye continued working various buttons and instruments on the control panel as he spoke. The three men eventually felt the craft stabilize, but the pilot didn't sound any less worried. "If this keeps up, I'm gonna have to try to find a place to land."

"Make sure it's one we can walk away from," said Tony.

It was then that Bruce noticed a slight change in the sound of the hum of the craft. Judging by Agent Barton's sudden movement, he'd noticed it to. "Now what's going on?" Bruce asked him.

"I don't know." The snow was beginning to thin, but Hawkeye continued to struggle with the controls. "What is this?"

The snow thinned out and then disappeared altogether – surprisingly quickly, it seemed, to the three men in the air. Even stranger was the odd crackling sound that seemed to be coming from all directions. "Not sure I want to ask what that is," Bruce decided.

Tony rolled his sleeves away from his wristbands. "I'm gonna check this out."

"How do you plan to get out there without freezing us to death?" Bruce couldn't help asking. Another bout of turbulence made him ask, "What was that?"

Hawkeye sounded concerned and puzzled but as composed as always when he said, "I'm losing control. It's like the system's frozen." He looked at a panel on his left. "What the..." He pressed a few buttons but got no reassuring results. "I don't believe this."

The crackling sound got louder. "Believe what?" Tony asked.

"The engines are freezing." The men felt the craft dip considerably before Hawkeye managed to pull it back up. "We're flying heavy, and the power's dying. This entire jet's freezing over."

"In midair? How?" Tony exclaimed as the mysterious noise died away.

Hawkeye tried a few more controls before he said, "Nothing's responding. I can't do anything – everything's freezing up."

"How is this happening?" Bruce asked, looking as far around them as the windows allowed, as if the answer was somewhere out there.

"It doesn't – not to S.H.I.E.L.D. technology," Barton said, trying to his best to keep them in the air until he could land as best he could with nothing to guide him. It wasn't long, however, before they felt themselves losing altitude.

Once Hawkeye got them into something resembling stability again, Tony tried to stand up. "I'll get out there, see if there's anything I can do."

"Wouldn't do that if I were you, Stark," Hawkeye warned him.

"Why?"

"Because we're going down."

Tony gave up any plan of getting into his suit. "Oh, great."

"Brace for impact!"

Bruce closed his eyes, held his breath, and listened for the monitor on his wrist to start beeping, but it didn't. Of course it wouldn't – why would he panic when he knew he was in no danger of dying? Whatever happened when they hit the ground, the other guy wouldn't let him die. He'd be the one left to sort through the wreckage for the bodies of his friends... He opened his eyes just in time to see the ground fly up at them.

They had crashed on a gentle slope. The Quinjet drifted down through the snow for several yards before something in its path brought it to an abrupt halt. There was silence for a moment as everyone caught their breath and relaxed their tensed muscles before Hawkeye turned around to his face his teammates and asked, "Everyone okay?"

All three were shaken up, stunned, and a little sore but completely unharmed – the Quinjet had been built to withstand much stronger damage and to protect its occupants from much tougher abuse. Whatever had brought them down, at least it hadn't affected the ability of the structure to survive the impact. Bruce noticed the other two were looking at him apprehensively. "Yeah, it's okay," he assured them, grateful that the crash had happened too fast to let his heart rate get to dangerous levels. "I'm fine."

Tony shrugged and said, "Well, no harm done."

"Not so sure about that," Hawkeye observed as the three slowly began to disentangle themselves from the seats and straps.

The first thing Bruce noticed when he stepped outside was a complete lack of wind, which was highly disconcerting when he remembered the blizzard they had flown through only minutes ago – how had it died down so fast? The second thing he noticed was how cold he didn't feel; Stark's super weather protective gear was passing its first real test. He stepped away from the jet and glanced around him. They were at the bottom of a hilly valley at the edge of a forest; he could see the path the Quinjet had carved in the snow on its way down one hill before it came to rest against the side of another. There were no landmarks in sight, nothing to see in any direction but more trees and snow, nothing that could provide some clue where they were.

Stark came out right behind him. "No welcoming committee?"

Bruce shook his head and continued scanning their surroundings for any sign of movement. "Looks deserted."

"Good, 'cause I'm not waiting for the suit to power up," Stark said as he pulled out a tablet. He and Banner turned around and looked at the jet. "Whoah." Sure enough, the turbines on the wings were covered in a thick layer of ice, but it wasn't just the engines – the entire body was coated in a thin layer of frost, with icicles that should have been jolted off in the crash hanging from just about every edge. It was now easy to see how the jet had gotten too heavy and too cold to fly.

"There's something you don't see every day," Bruce remarked serenely, lest his surprise affect his heart too strongly.

Stark took a few steps around the grounded craft. "How did we take on _that_ much ice so fast?" Bruce, who couldn't think of any reason for it, said nothing. Tony dug his fingers into the metal and pried open a frozen panel. He reached into the opening and pulled out a cable, which he connected to the tablet, and began running diagnostics.

Bruce took one last look around the area before turning his back on it and stepped up next to Stark. "How bad?"

"Hard to say." Stark worked the screen silently for a minute before he spoke again. "Not much it can tell me. I'll break out the suit; maybe after I thaw this thing out, I can get a better reading and assess all the damage."

Bruce studied the display, but mechanics were not his area of expertise. "And if we can't get it running?"

"Well, then we call for help. How should we put it? 'Hello, Director Fury, we need you to send a rescue party – we crashed while violating international border laws.' "

Bruce nodded – the same thought had occurred to him. "Too bad you didn't build a passenger seat for that suit."

"Come on, you guys wouldn't mind dangling in midair for a few thousand miles, would you?" A loud beep drew his attention back to the screen. "Oh, crap..."

Bruce looked at the alert. "The fuel tanks?"

"Ruptured – more than half leaked out. Wonder how far it is to the nearest gas station?"

"How long will the reserves last us?"

Stark sighed as he opened another window on the screen. "Get us home from here – I wouldn't recommend trying to go any farther... further... Farther? Further?"

"Well, it saves you a lot of trouble – no sense repairing a plane without fuel. Guess the world's just gonna have to freeze."

"Look on the bright side – gives more tourists time to see the frozen Niagara Falls."

"Ready for some more good news?" The scientists turned around to see Hawkeye stepping outside and walking towards them, holding up the tablet in his hand. "We're off course."

"_Of_ course," Tony said as he disconnected his own tablet and shut it off.

"How far?" asked Bruce.

"A few hundred miles farther east than we should be."

Stark took the tablet from him to see for himself. "I knew we should've taken a left at Albuquerque."

Hawkeye folded his arms and shook his head. "I don't know how we got turned in this direction or when."

Bruce looked around them again. "So where are we?"

"Hard to tell, the maps of this region aren't completely accurate, but it looks like..." Bruce's gaze fell on Hawkeye just in time to see the latter's eyes widen and focus on something in his direction. One nanosecond later, the archer had his bow raised and an arrow on the string. "Duck!"

Bruce instantly bent down as the arrow flew over his head. He heard the ping of metal against metal and Stark yell, "Hey!" just before he stood up, spun around, and watched someone dressed in primitive soldier garb fall out of a tree, dropping a shield and crossbow as he hit the ground. This triggered the appearance of about twenty other men dressed in the same uniform emerging from behind trees, hills, boulders, and snowbanks, half with drawn swords and half with loaded crossbows. "What the..." was all Stark managed to say before they began firing.

"Watch out!" Bruce yelled out. Hawkeye was firing back with more arrows that they successfully deflected with their shields and armor. The unarmed Bruce and Tony quickly turned to the door of the jet when a bolt from a crossbow whizzed past Stark's face, just inches in front of his nose, causing him to stumble and allowing a line of men to run between them and the door.

Stark yelled, "Stay down!" and reached for his right wristband as they ducked under the line of fire and backed up until the three of them were standing back to back facing a semi-circle of assailants.

One of their attackers shouted, "Freeze!" in Norwegian.

Tony called back in Norwegian, "Look, we don't want to hurt anybody!"

As Stark's wristbands lit up, Hawkeye warned him, "Don't do anything stupid, Stark!"

"Who, me?" he replied sarcastically.

"Look, we don't want any trouble!" Banner shouted.

"We mean you no harm!" Hawkeye added, but nobody lowered their weapons.

Tony looked anxiously at Bruce, who was breathing hard, trying not to let the situation stress him out. His wrist monitor showed his heart rate was going up, although not as quickly as it would have before he'd accustomed his body to feeling anger and stress without reacting. Still, he and the others all knew he was walking a temperamental tightrope.

Tony looked back at the men surrounding them whom the weapons in his suit could vaporize in five seconds, not wanting to hurt anyone or cause the situation to escalate to hulking-out levels. They would really freak out if they saw it fly out to him, and who knew what they would do then? He abandoned any thought of calling the suit and tried to think of a way out of this.

When someone ran towards them with his sword raised, Hawkeye abandoned the diplomatic approach and fired an explosive arrow into the air near the jet. The soldiers scattered when it exploded, creating an opening. The three friends only managed to run a few feet, however, before four guards with drawn swords blocked their path, stopping them in their tracks. Hawkeye had loaded another arrow on the string and aimed when one of them yelled at him, "Drop your weapon now!"

The soldiers had recovered from the shock of the explosion and had all their crossbows aimed back at their three targets but had not started shooting again. Everyone was still, waiting to see who would make the first move. The same soldier, whose more elaborate uniform seemed to mark him as the leader, yelled again, "I said drop it, witch hunter!"

Without turning his head or lowering his bow, Hawkeye asked in English, "What did he call me, Stark?"

"Uh... witch hunter?" Tony said uncertainly.

"Yeah, that's what your program said, too. What does that mean?"

"How should I know?"

"Listen – we mean you no harm. We're not enemies," Bruce tried to tell them. He had instantly recognized the uniform, but there was no time to think about that. By force of habit, all his attention was focused on stopping his attackers from getting themselves killed. "We got lost and crashed here by accident. We just..."

The captain stepped closer to them and demanded, "Who sent you?"

"Nobody," Agent Barton told him. "We're on our way north. We came here by accident. We're sorry for disturbing you, but it was quite unintentional."

One of the soldiers stepped closer and shoved his crossbow practically in the archer's face. "You expect us to believe that, witch hunter?"

"Have you come for our queen? Like all the others?" the captain growled.

"I don't know what you're talking about, and I have no business with your queen."

Another soldier gestured to the Quinjet. "What is this contraption?" he asked, relatively calmly. "Where did you get it?"

"It's very complicated," Tony answered.

"Where's your partner?" somebody asked Hawkeye angrily, looking around them as if he suspected they had reinforcements. "Is she waiting to sneak up on us?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," a genuinely confused Hawkeye repeated.

"You obviously have us confused with someone else," Tony tried to tell them.

"Liar!"

The soldier who seemed the most composed stepped up to the Captain. "Sir, there's no sign of the girl. There have never been any reports of them traveling in such a device as this. I don't believe it's him."

"We can't let him go until we're sure," the Captain replied.

"Where do you come from? Are you spies? Scouts from Weselton?"

"I knew he couldn't be trusted."

Guessing the name of their country would mean nothing to these people, Hawkeye tried to explain, "We're not from around here. We came from far away, across the ocean..."

"Strangers from that world have no business here!"

"Have you come to rob us or enslave us?"

"Honestly, we were just passing through!" Tony yelled in exasperation.

"You expect us to fall for that?"

Bruce could feel his heart speeding up as the tension mounted. He'd deliberately remained silent as much as he could, trying to ignore what was going on around him; he'd allowed himself to always feel angry, not threatened – remaining calm when angry couldn't deaden his body's fight-or-flight response. He had to diffuse the situation before the unsuspecting soldiers pushed it too far. While some of them were still arguing with Stark and Barton, he took a deep breath, turned to the captain, and said, "Look, captain, we're not here to hurt anyone. You can trust us. I know you don't remember me, but I'm a friend of..."

"Silence, stranger!"

Bruce shuddered, but as he heard no warning beep from his wrist, he risked another try: "Please, listen – I'm a friend of..."

"I said silence!"

Too afraid to push his luck anymore, Bruce closed his mouth and fell back next to his friends. Same old, same old – couldn't fight back, couldn't resist, couldn't defend himself, just sit back quietly and surrender. Forever forced to respond like a coward or some weakling to every threat, every challenge. It was so aggravating, he knew he would have lost control now if it hadn't been for the strategy he'd learned here.

"Friend?" he heard Stark wonder aloud behind him.

"Would someone mind telling us where we are?" Hawkeye asked.

Glaring at the captors he couldn't fight, Bruce said in a toneless voice, "Arendelle."

Stark and Hawkeye simultaneously turned to each other and exchanged a very perplexed look before turning to Banner. "How do you know that?" Hawkeye asked him.

"I've been here before," he answered in the same monotone. Some of the soldiers seemed surprised by his answer, as well, and turned to whisper to each other.

"What? When?" Tony asked.

"Two years ago."

"Any idea what's the best way out of this?" Hawkeye asked him, keeping his eye and arrow on their opponents.

"Enough of this!" one of the soldiers yelled, pointing his sword at them. "What are we going to do with them?"

"Kill them!"

"Trespassers!"

"Invaders!"

"Arrest them! We can't let them go!"

"Take them to the dungeons!"

"Lock them up until we get some real answers!"

The captain stepped forward and declared, "Enough!" He glared at Hawkeye, whom he seemed to regard as their leader, and announced, "We'll take them to the queen – let her decide what to do with them". He gestured to his men, half of whom sheathed their swords, while the other half closed in on the prisoners, brandishing their crossbows.

"We're not going anywhere with you," Tony said, gripping his right wristband again. There might be no other way...

"It's okay, Stark," Banner said without moving a muscle.

Hawkeye pointed his arrow at the soldier closest to him. "We can't risk..."

"Just go with them," Bruce said firmly. "It'll be fine."

Stark carefully scanned the crowd, doing a final headcount. "I can take them; we don't have to..."

"There's no need for anyone to get hurt," Banner insisted. "This is the best way, trust me."

Hawkeye pulled his bowstring further back, still looking for the most opportune place to strike. "You sure about this?"

"Completely."

With a great deal of effort, Hawkeye slowly lowered his bow but didn't soften his glare. "Do what he says, Stark," he said as he returned the arrow to the quiver on his back, keeping his sharp eyes alert for the slightest sign of attack.

"I'm not just gonna let them take us all prisoner!" Tony exclaimed in disbelief. "We didn't do anything! We..."

"We need to keep everybody calm," Hawkeye reminded him.

Stark threw one look at Banner before shaking his head, rolling his eyes, and mumbling, "I don't believe this" under his breath. He raised his hands up in surrender. "Okay, you got us! We'll come quietly!"

"Good," said the captain. He sheathed his sword and held his hand out to Hawkeye. "Hand over your weapons." He might just as well have asked him to cut off his arm; the archer instinctively gripped his bow tightly in both hands but otherwise didn't move.

"Do what he says, Barton," Tony said mockingly. "We need to keep everybody calm, you know."

There was a long pause before Hawkeye hissed, "I'm not calm." He removed his bow and quiver of arrows with slow, robotic movements and handed them over in silent seething, fury. When a soldier took them, it took him awhile to release his fingers from around the bow.

Six guards surrounded the prisoners, keeping them covered with their crossbows, and the company made its way out of the valley. The three travelers walked where they were led, Bruce in the lead, followed by Tony, and then Hawkeye. None of them felt like talking, but Bruce didn't even glance to his left or right as he marched, which his two friends found rather unnerving. They both decided it would be wisest to leave him alone, Tony even putting his curiosity about what he had heard him say during the fight aside for now, and turned their attention to the terrain they were marching through.

The deserted wilderness of snow and trees never changed; they passed no buildings and met no other people. It seemed few or none of the citizens elected to live near the mountain range separating the kingdom from its southern neighbor Norway. Had they not needed to be on their guard, the frozen scenery would have looked beautiful. Occasionally, the ground leveled off, but for the most part, they were always walking downhill. They soon got to an open area where a bay, a port, and a stone castle were visible on the near horizon, with smaller buildings farther off in the distance.

Tony, unsurprisingly, was the first one to speak. "So that's Arendelle, eh? Charming." The soldiers urged them down the slope. "Fury wasn't kidding. Looks like it's still the fifteenth century here."

It wasn't the medieval look of the place that caught Hawkeye's attention, however. "Where is everybody?" he asked, detecting very few signs of life or movement in the town or port.

"Inside taking cover from the cold," one of the guards explained.

"Lucky them," said another.

They had to cross an inlet of the sea to reach the castle. As they were crossing the bridge, Hawkeye looked down at the water and asked Stark in English, "Notice anything odd?"

"Do you want them listed alphabetically or from most to least?" Stark asked in return.

"Anything about the water?"

Tony looked uninterested at the blue expanse a few feet below. "Nope, looks like pretty normal, mundane... water?" He did a double-take as he realized what he was seeing.

"Exactly. It's over 30° below freezing, but the water's not frozen. It should be a solid layer of ice by now."

Tony debated asking their escorts about their fjord defying the laws of physics, but he was still annoyed about being their prisoner. He took a few steps forward and asked Banner instead, "Know anything about that?"

"Not exactly," was Banner's curt reply.

"You don't seem surprised."

"I'm not. I have a theory, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"What's the story with this place?"

Bruce grinned faintly as he answered, "You'll find out."

They reached the shore and began walking down the icy, cobblestone streets. Judging by the formation of the nearest buildings, Tony guessed they were passing through the town square. It was hard to tell when the streets were almost empty and most of the shops were closed, though. Very few people were about – lumberjacks hauling carts full of wood for very hungry fires, no doubt; children throwing snowballs at each other; the occasional man hurrying towards a door with a dead rabbit or fish basket in his hand; a dauntless shopkeeper or two; and servants loading sleds with supplies pulled by reindeer or dogs that they seemed to be driving towards a ship back in the port that must have been preparing to leave. Tony could detect mostly Norwegian, mixed with a little Finnish and some language he was sure he'd never heard before, in their speech, but few of them were talking.

Now it was Tony's turn to be confused – by the way people looked at them. Only half of them stopped and looked as they passed and started whispering to their neighbors with concern or confusion. The other half acted like they didn't even notice the strangers with foreign features and bizarre clothes being escorted by a small troop of armed guards, not as if they were afraid or angry, but as if they simply didn't care, as if it wasn't worth noticing, and not because it was a boring or common sight, but because it didn't matter. They went about their business as if the unusual display held no interest for them; in fact, their faces and manners seemed to say that nothing could, that there was nothing interesting or worth noting to be found in the world anymore.

Tony couldn't explain it, but there was an air of depression and gloom in the air that increased tenfold whenever he looked some of the people in the eye. Physically, everyone looked normal, but some of their expressions looked so cold and hostile that he couldn't resist the impulse to turn away. It wasn't directed at the three strangers or the soldiers or their neighbors but at the world in general. It was like half the population was suffering from a contagious, severe clinical depression. Judging by how Barton asked, "You feel that?", he wasn't the only one to notice.

"Yeah – what is it?" Stark asked with a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold he was fully shielded from.

Banner shook his head. "I don't know – it wasn't like this before."

"See anyone you recognize?" Stark asked him next.

Another head shake. "No."

"You didn't even look."

"I don't need to – she wouldn't be out here."

"She?" Tony Stark was still Tony Stark. "This is where she's from?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Tony looked intently at each face, wondering who Banner's mystery woman could be. He had to give up soon, however. "What's up with everybody?" he wondered, looking at all the cheerless people.

"The cold?" Hawkeye suggested.

"You don't get this depressed just because it's cold," said Tony. "Something's going on here." He noticed their guards watching them suspiciously while they conversed in English; he could detect no sign to indicate any of them understood it. If there was something in the air around here, none of them seemed to be affected by it, either.

The crowd thickened as they approached the castle, and the courtyard behind the giant, open gates was bustling with activity. The heavy sense of gloom faded significantly; all the people here were laughing and enjoying themselves – playing with their families in the snow, skating on a giant ice rink, chiseling blocks of ice into sculptures, and drinking cups of steaming liquid being distributed from wheeled carts. The contrast was staggering, not least of all because it was no warmer here.

Desperate to find anything or anyone that could be potentially useful, Stark risked tapping Banner on the shoulder. "How about now? Anyone you know?"

"No," Bruce answered instantly.

"I'm not fooling around. If we can't fight our way out, we need help, and we need answers. Is your friend anywhere around here?"

"No."

"But she _is_ from this kingdom, right? The, how'd you put it, the most beautiful woman in the world? She's here somewhere."

"Stark, I can honestly say I've never met any of these people in my life, and I don't know anyone out here."

"Then who is she?"

Tony could make out onlookers calling out, with the eager curiosity you'd expect from people, "What's the meaning of this?" and "What's going on here?" and such as they marched through the courtyard. The guards waved them gently aside, and the captain sent two of them running ahead, probably to announce their arrival. Tony waved and smiled at a few of them as they passed, positive one of the women here must be his friend's secret heartache, unable to abandon his fun-loving, carefree demeanor even now. To his disappointment, he spotted no glimmer of recognition in anyone's eye, heard no gasp of surprise, and saw no one pushing their way through the crowd as if their life depended on getting closer.

Who could it be? One of the shopgirls they'd passed earlier? If only more of them had been out... Maybe he was telling the truth, and he wasn't looking for her because he knew where she was. As they crossed the threshold into the castle itself, Tony suddenly wondered if she lived or worked here, maybe a chambermaid or a seamstress or a cook. No servants came in sight, however, as they waited in the entrance hall, presumably for the clearance to proceed to wherever they were going next.

"What's this queen like, Banner?" Hawkeye whispered cautiously, as if he wasn't willing to take for granted that none of their captors could understand their language.

"You'll see," was the only answer he got.

Tony figured he might as well pass the time by trying to fill in the blanks. "No king, apparently... must've died. Probably an ancient, wrinkled, old dowager who doesn't get along with her step-daughter and refuses to hand over the throne to her son." Banner didn't say a word or even turn around, just shook his head and snickered. Hawkeye glared at him, but he just shrugged. "What? They can't understand us."

"Never assume that," the agent warned him.

"Wouldn't matter what they thought of us if you'd just let me take care of them from the beginning," Stark couldn't help pointing out.

"You want to file that casualty report, be my guest," Hawkeye said as the doors in front of them opened a crack.

One of the soldiers who had been sent ahead earlier came out and walked up to the captain. "The queen is ready to see them now."

"Good," the captain said with a smile. "Let's see what she has to say about these foreigners."

The two doors were pushed open from the other side and the visitors led through. The throne room was crowded, too, its occupants' dress and mannerisms clearly identifying them as royalty and nobility. The chatter from the small groups and clusters of people fell to whispers as the guards strolled forward with their prisoners.

Tony was at first too distracted by the magnificent architecture of the room to look for the person they were being brought to. "This isn't medieval," he observed. "This is more modern."

"Guess some things have trickled in from the outside world," Hawkeye guessed. "I thought I saw a kid on a bicycle on our way in."

"That's reassuring, I guess," said Tony. "At least they probably won't try to burn us at the stake for black sorcery or something. I sure hope this queen has the common sense to listen when we tell her whoah, baby!" Tony's eyes almost popped out of his head as they finally fell on the woman sitting on the throne at the far end of the room, half-turned aside talking to some official. He'd never seen such perfection of face and figure united in one frame, and he'd studied plenty! His eyes roved of their own volition from her glistening, fine, white hair to the shapely legs peeking out from the slit in her gown and back again, pausing at the usual place, which her outfit nicely emphasized. Whatever it was made of, the silver-blue gown gave the impression she was wrapped in starlight, magnifying the effect of her beauty tenfold.

Hawkeye rolled his eyes as Stark gaped openly at the queen and wolf-whistled. To their mutual surprise, Bruce instantly reached over, knocked him hard on the shoulder, and whispered, "Shut it, Stark."

"Ow," Tony said, rubbing his shoulder. "What'd I say?"

"I thought you were spoken for," an annoyed Hawkeye reminded him.

"Doesn't make me blind."

Tony threw up his hands as one of the soldiers blocked their path with a sword. "Halt!"

The three prisoners did as they were told. Only the captain strode forward and bowed to the queen up on the dais. "The foreigners are here, Your Majesty."

A pleasant but regal voice said, "Thank you, captain." He backed off to the side and stood at attention while the queen nodded at her previous visitor, who bowed and stepped away as well. Only then did she turn and look up at her new guests, allowing them to see her dazzling blue eyes clearly for the first time.

It wasn't the color that got Tony's attention, however, but the expression in them. It only lasted for half a second, at most, before it was wiped away with the speed and seamlessness of an expert at the art (she would have made a great businesswoman), and an untrained eye would never have caught it. The head of Stark Industries, however, had too much experience reading people to miss it. It was a combination of disbelief, doubt, recognition, and excitement, not in succession but instantaneously, filtered through a screen of burning curiosity for answers and joy that didn't care to care ask any questions – the wordless equivalent of "It's you!"

Tony glanced briefly around him, wondering who in the room the look was meant for, before turning back to the queen, who hadn't moved or said a word even after she'd composed herself. Nobody else did, either, but stood waiting on her orders. Finally, she slowly rose to her feet, beaming brightly, and walked just as slowly down the dais towards them.

With no warning, Bruce stepped forward at the same time and walked towards her. Tony barely had time to wonder what he was doing when several of the guards darted forward, one of them warning, "Hold it right there!" and another exclaiming "How dare you!" before the queen raised a hand and they all fell silent. They exchanged some puzzled and concerned looks with each other but stood still as the two continued walking until they were only a few feet apart.

It was right before they both stopped that the queen said, "Dr. Banner."

There was a long pause, and then Bruce bowed towards her and said, "Your Highness."

"It's good to see you again," she said calmly but with the same wide smile.

"It's good to see you, too," he said in the same tone and with the same smile.

"I didn't expect to find you back here so soon."

"I didn't expect to be back here... so soon."

"Where have you been?"

"Everywhere. It's a long list."

"Still traveling?"

"Not recently. I've been... spending the winter with a friend. There have been... some changes."

"All for the better, I hope?"

"Definitely. How have you been?"

"Just fine. Not much has changed here, though."

"No."

"No... not at all..."

"Oh, that's... good, I mean, I'm glad that... things have been fine."

"What brings you all the way back here?"

"Well, it's a long story..."

Tony was the first member of their bewildered audience to recover the power of speech. "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but... what in the world is going on here?"

The queen gasped as if noticing her other visitors for the first time. She smiled at Tony but looked warily at Hawkeye. "Friends of yours?" she asked Bruce.

"Yes." The four of them walked towards each other and Bruce extended his arm towards Stark. "This is..."

Tony didn't wait for his introduction. "Anthony Stark. My friends (and enemies) call me Tony, and might I say, it is an honor – an _honor_ – to meet you, Your Highness." He gave her his most polite bow, took her right hand in his, and kissed the tips of her fingers.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir... I'm sure," she said with a gentle smirk of amusement at his overdone gallantry.

Tony was grinning from ear to ear as the pieces fell together. Struggling to contain his laughter, he put his arm around Banner's shoulders. Without moving his lips or teeth or turning his head to the side, he whispered in English, "Most beautiful woman in the world, huh?"

Also without moving his head to look at him, Bruce hissed through the same frozen, twisted smile, "One word, and you're dead." Without missing a beat, he spoke up in Norwegian, "And this is Agent Clint Barton."

This news seemed to relax her, for some inexplicable reason. Hawkeye gave her a respectful, silent bow, and she gave him a polite nod before addressing herself to them both. "Queen Elsa. Welcome to Arendelle." She then turned to Bruce and said, "Welcome back."

Tony expected to get a death glare for the mischievous look he gave Banner when he heard her tone, but he considered it a promising sign that it went ignored. Queen Elsa continued: "I'm sorry if my men startled you. I hope they treated you well. They were only doing their duty, but I hope they didn't cause you any trouble..."

"What? Oh, no, no trouble at all," Tony said flippantly. "Things couldn't possibly have gone better."

"If we're no longer under arrest, does that mean I can have my bow back, please, ma'am?" Hawkeye asked.

"Of course." Queen Elsa nodded at the captain, who waved for the soldier holding the confiscated weapons to hand them over. As Hawkeye took them, she added, "I hope you understand. They were just trying to protect me. You probably aren't aware of this, but you bear a striking resemblance to a famous witch hunter."

Hawkeye looked at her as incredulously as his expressionless face could look. "I've hunted a lot of things in my life, Your Highness, but witches aren't one of them. I didn't even know you had witches here to hunt."

"We don't." Her smile faded for the first time. "Just ignorant people who fear what they don't understand." She provided no explanation for that foreboding statement but simply smiled again and asked them, "But what does bring you to Arendelle?" The three strangers briefly looked amongst themselves, wondering where to begin, until she said, "Perhaps we should go somewhere we can talk in peace and you can explain properly."

"Excellent idea," said Tony.

"Follow me." They did, heading the rest of the way across the room to a little door between the dais and the wall. She nodded at a servant they passed, saying, "Carry on," who bowed and, from what they could see, went to give instructions to his staff and explanations to nosy guests. The gentleman they'd seen talking with her when they arrived stepped towards her. "Unexpected business, councilman," she said with another nod. "I'll be back soon."

"As you wish, madame," he said with a bow.

The captain, who had followed her as well, asked, "I will send four of my men for security, my Queen."

"That won't be necessary, captain."

"But... Your Majesty, your safety... I..."

The queen turned her back on him, raised her hand and blew over her fingers like she was blowing a kiss, causing a cloud of fog to spread from her fingers over the door, covering it in a sheet of ice with sinister-looking icicles hanging down and shooting up from the top and bottom edges of the frame. "You were saying?"

Tony was admiring the abstract pattern in the ice as the captain said sheepishly, "Yes, I know you can take care of yourself, my Queen. I merely thought..."

"Actually, please send two of your men to guard the door to the meeting hall in the East Wing off the gallery. I'd like a warning when the princess returns."

The captain bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty," as the queen melted the ice as quickly as she'd formed it.

"Nice work," Tony observed. Hawkeye even nodded in assent.

Queen Elsa turned and looked at them both in surprise, but it eventually faded, and she turned to Banner instead, who was smiling knowingly at her, as if to say, What did I tell you? "I see what you meant." Clearly, she hadn't expected them to be so unfazed by her powers. Tony assumed that meant they weren't the norm around here. Interesting.

A nearby servant opened the door and held it for them as the queen and Bruce walked out. Hawkeye followed right behind them, but Tony paused to shake his head and say, with more excitement than he'd felt in weeks, "I can't _wait_ to hear the story behind this..."


	5. Something Bad

Sadly, Tony and Hawkeye missed a perfect chance to add unnecessary drama to their adventure when they met Elsa. They had been sent to investigate the cause behind a supernatural cold wave, had their plane brought down by unusually rapidly-forming ice, and just met a woman with supernatural ice powers, but neither of them considered the irrational possibility that she might be behind it. Tony was too excited by his discovery to think ill of her and Hawkeye too practical – the approximate location of the source of the polar vortex was hundreds of miles north of Arendelle, and even it hadn't been, the queen, who by all appearances was busy running her kingdom and minding her own business, had no logical motive to freeze the planet, and had obviously not been expecting them when they were brought to her after they crashed. So the opportunity to suspect Elsa of any involvement in the mystery harmlessly passed them by.

The two first-time visitors were far more at their ease than the doctor and the queen. If either of them had ever imagined meeting the other again, no one else had ever been included in the picture. Had they been alone, they would have been able to ask all the questions that were on their minds, but it was impossible to talk freely in front of his friends. They exchanged a brief look that said, _Not now_, and put all personal inquiries on hold until a more opportune time.

Fortunately, Stark talked more than enough for three people, preventing things from getting awkward. "Nice paintings. I'm an avid art collector myself," he remarked as they walked down the long gallery.

"I've heard my grandfather had a passion for it – the family collection more than doubled during his lifetime," the queen explained.

"He must have been busy," Hawkeye said, a little puzzled, as he stared at a painting of Joan Of Arc. "Looks like he found samples from all over the world."

"He did – even from your world," the queen replied, correctly guessing the meaning behind his observation. "We don't harbor any hatred or animosity towards the nations of your world; we simply prefer to be left alone."

"You and the other countries in this region?"

"Yes. We're the ones who would rather live without the unnecessary complications and unnatural habits of their dangerous technology. We also could never embrace their irrational systems of government or worship their paperwork gods, so we've avoided those who did and kept to ourselves. Our lifestyle is different than yours, I know, but it's the one we prefer, and we simply want to protect our freedom to live in peace."

"So do we," Bruce, for whom the last words hit close to home, finally said. "That's why we had to come alone."

"We're not here to disturb your privacy," Hawkeye emphasized. "We were sent to investigate strange activity north of here."

"I believe you. Perhaps if you tell me more, I might be able to help."

"Sure is nice to have friends who know people in high places," Tony said with a smirk, earning a cold shoulder from Bruce.

"Will our presence here cause a problem for you?" Hawkeye asked, all business.

The queen was looking at Banner when she answered, "Not at all – travelers pass through here all the time. We try to welcome whoever we can, wherever they come from."

"I remember that." Bruce smiled as he recalled the impression he'd gathered on his first visit here. "I remember..." he repeated, thinking, as he looked her in the eye, _I never expected you to remember me, just another one of many strangers you helped._

Elsa smiled back and said, "So do I," in answer to both.

Bruce couldn't say anything else after that, and Tony was too busy watching them, so Hawkeye, for the first time in his life, was the most talkative member of the group. "Any other strangers pass through here recently?" he asked.

"None that I know of," Queen Elsa told him.

"Anything unusual happen around here this winter?"

Elsa hesitated slightly before she answered, "No... not exactly... nothing important. I've heard it's been unusually cold, is all."

"You've heard?" a confused Tony repeated.

"That's what everyone's been saying all winter."

Tony still didn't understand what she was talking about. "Been saying? You haven't noticed how cold it is out there?"

Elsa smirked as she replied, "No – I never have."

Tony nodded as he got it. "Oh, right... makes sense... should've figured. Sorry, Your Highness."

Bruce was glaring at his friend, but Elsa simply told him, "Don't worry about it."

Hawkeye tried to sound polite when he asked the queen, "Pardon me, Your Majesty, but, when you say 'not exactly,' what exactly do you mean?"

"It's... complicated. But it doesn't mean anything, it's just... I'll explain inside." Elsa stopped before a set of double doors and nodded to the two guards who had accompanied them. The men stepped forward, opened the doors, and inclined their heads as their queen entered, followed by her guests. Tony saw them take up their positions on opposite sides of the entrance as the doors closed behind them.

"This is one of the rooms I use for private conferences," Queen Elsa explained as she took her ornate seat at the end of the small, mahogany table, set with quills, ink wells, and short stacks of paper, that took up most of the relatively small but well-lit room. A blazing fireplace took up one wall, a set of half-empty bookshelves stacked with a few thin, leather-bound ledgers another, and a small window overlooking the main courtyard the last. "No one will disturb us here."

"Good," Hawkeye said as he stood at the window, looking down. "We'd like to remain as low-key as possible. Our mission was supposed to be secret."

Bruce and Tony took seats at the table, and Elsa gestured for their leader to do the same. "What kind of mission?" she asked him as he joined them. "What are you looking for here?"

"We don't know," Tony answered. "But we'll know it when we see it... we think... we hope..."

"I... don't understand..."

Bruce rolled his eyes at Stark and said, "We've been sent to find what's causing this incredibly cold weather."

"The weather?"

"Our people believe it's unnatural in origin, this particularly strong cold spell," Hawkeye explained.

"Magic?"

He shrugged as he admitted, "Around here, I guess that's a very real possibility, but we don't know for sure."

"Whatever it is, we have to find it and stop it before the entire world freezes," said Tony.

"You're sure it's that dangerous?" Elsa asked skeptically. "I admit, it's been an extremely harsh winter, but..."

Hawkeye shook his head. "It's more than that. There's a vortex of polar-cold air spreading across the globe from one area. Something – or someone – is bombarding us with chilled air that freezes everything in its path."

"Here?" Elsa gasped. "And it's affecting even your world? _That_ far away?"

"Not just us – everywhere," Bruce informed her. "Parts of our country that almost never see snow have been buried."

"I know what that's like," Elsa said darkly.

"Any idea what could cause something like this?" Hawkeye asked her.

The queen shook her head. "I wish I did, but I've never heard of any magic that strong. I can't believe it. I once accidentally caused a horrible midsummer snowstorm a few years ago, but I don't think even that affected any more than Arendelle. How is this even possible?"

"That's what we need to figure out. Do you know of anyone else with that kind of power?" he asked next.

"Unfortunately, no. I know it's not me this time."

"We know," Bruce told her. "The cold wave's coming from somewhere hundreds of miles to the north."

"What's in that direction?" asked Hawkeye.

"I'll show you our maps, but there have been no reports of anything strange from the kingdoms north of us, except that it's even colder," Elsa explained. "Whatever magic someone is using to cause this, surely someone would notice something."

"So it's populated?" Tony asked.

"To a certain point. Eventually, you find the Great Northern Wilds, where no one but nomadic bandits and thieves roam, looking for lost travelers or explorers foolish enough to venture that far, and then completely uninhabited, frozen wilderness."

"Sounds like the perfect place to hide," Tony observed.

"I agree," said Elsa. "But who? Why?"

Hawkeye shook his head. "We need to find out. Soon."

Elsa nodded and said, "I understand. How can I help you? What do you need? Men? Supplies?"

The question was directed at Banner, so he answered, "Men, no. Looks like we might need new transportation."

Tony shrugged and said, "Well, the two of them, anyway. I've got no problem with ice..."

"You need to leave right away," Elsa said somberly, still looking at Bruce.

"We... have a mission to complete," was all he said.

"I know," she said with a nod towards him. "That's why you came here..."

"I volunteered to come along when I saw where they were going," Bruce said next, causing the queen to smile.

"We didn't intend to intrude on you like this," Hawkeye told her again. "We had an accident on the way. It's almost like something not only knocked us off course but caused us to crash in your backyard."

"Do you think it's connected to what you're investigating?" she asked.

"I don't see how, but I don't see why not."

"That happen to anyone else recently?" asked Bruce.

"No, but, then again, most travel through here is done by sea or road, not by flying."

"How did you know we were flying?" Tony suddenly asked. "How did your men even find us?"

"Some woodsmen saw something circling through the air in the distance," the queen answered. "I've heard stories about flying machines passing over our land, but I've never seen one..."

"Of course not, they're supposed to stay away from here," Stark mumbled under his breath at Banner, who cleared his throat as a warning to keep quiet until she finished and turned back to the queen.

"... No one could remember ever seeing one fly so close. The soldiers kept an eye on it, and it got closer and drifted lower as it reached the southern mountains. When it disappeared abruptly, I sent some of them to investigate. I should have gone myself, but I didn't know if they would find survivors, or... I preferred to hear about what casualties they found rather than see them for myself. I'm so glad none of you were hurt."

"No, we're fine," Bruce assured her. "Sorry to have scared you."

"I wasn't scared of you, only for you." Everyone knew she was referring to the sighting of their jet and their fate after the crash, but at least one of them was struck by an alternate, unintended, unconscious meaning of her words at the same time she was. There was a pause as it sank in for her before she shook her head and cleared her throat. "But everything's fine now. If you will vouch for your friends, Dr. Banner, I'll assure my men that they're not spies and mean us no harm."

"You have my word, my Queen," said Bruce, grinning, as he nodded at his companions.

"And if you will vouch for your friend, Dr. Banner," Stark echoed, "we will trust that she and her people mean us no harm."

Bruce turned towards her and said, "You have my word. We can trust her."

"As I trust you," said Elsa.

"Can you tell us what's been going on around here lately?" Hawkeye asked her. "Anything out of the ordinary, anything suspicious at all..."

"Nothing that I have any reason to believe is caused by magic or any malevolent design," Elsa began cryptically. "But as to out of the ordinary..." She sighed as her voice trailed off.

"What, Your Majesty?" Hawkeye pressed her. She still said nothing.

Bruce finally leaned forward and asked, "What is it?"

Elsa turned to him again. Her voice was heavy as she said, "Something _has_ changed. It started this winter, so I could understand, because of the cold, but Kristoff's right – it's more than that. People have started acting very strange."

Barton nodded at Banner, who asked, "Strange how?"

Elsa sighed again before she stood up. She paced around the room as she continued. "It probably doesn't mean anything. People just seem more... unhappy than usual. Depressed. Angry. I mean, of course we've had some problems ever since the truth came out about their queen's powers, but nothing like this. I understood that some people would have a hard time accepting me as their ruler, but as time went on, they grew to trust me. I knew some would never be comfortable with it, I wasn't surprised when many left, but most were able to look past it and realize I wasn't a threat just because I was different.

"That's why it doesn't make any sense. Things had been going so well for years. I managed to gain their respect and love, just like my parents. We were getting along so well together – everyone was always eager to come to the castle, thrilled to see me use my powers... the gates have never been closed for a full day since I took the throne. Arendelle isn't perfect, but it was happy; we had fun, trade was booming – even many of the other nations came to trust me – we all rejoiced when my sister got married... everything was going wonderfully until two months ago."

"What happened?" Bruce asked her.

Elsa sounded calmer and more focused when she answered, like an inspector giving a report of results: "It started when I noticed less people coming to the castle each day. I didn't think anything of it, at first – like I said, I thought it was just because of the cold. But then I started noticing things outside – people whispering as I passed them in the street, giving me dirty looks, turning and walking abruptly away when I tried to say, 'Hello.' It was just a few people, at first, so I tried to ignore it; I accepted long ago that some people would never trust me because of my powers.

"But when I told Anna, my sister, about it, she said it wasn't just me. She'd noticed that more people seemed unhappy lately, not about me but about everything, and were less friendly with everybody. She said that whenever she went out, the streets were much quieter, not just because less people were out but because those who did almost never spoke, just went to work, bought food and other necessities, and went home without looking anyone in the eye – people who used to laugh and celebrate with us just weeks ago. Our servants all said they noticed strange behavior in their friends, too, but nobody could tell them why – for no reason, they'd just seemed to start hating to live here and hating everything and everyone around them. I tried my best to find out why, but none of the soldiers or officials knew anything, and when I tried to ask people in the street what was wrong, nobody would speak to me, just turn their back on me and walk away, or mumble 'Sorceress' or 'Wicked witch' under their breath, even spit in my face."

"And you let them get away with that because..." Tony asked incredulously.

"I'm not a tyrant," Queen Elsa said firmly. "My guards felt the same way you do, though; they'd rush forward and grab the person by both arms and growl about how they would pay for that before I told them to let them go. Nobody's ever tried to hurt me, they just hate me. But it's not just me, it's everything. I finally gave up and stopped inquiring about what I'd done to make everyone so sad and angry."

"Everyone?" Hawkeye asked.

"No, not everyone, not literally," Elsa clarified. "At least, not at first..."

"At first?" Tony repeated.

Elsa stopped her pacing and stepped up to the table but didn't sit down. "Whatever it is, more of our friends and supporters have left us since it started. Every day, more people seem to catch the spirit of discontent; less and less people come to the palace, and there are more and more angry glares in the streets, which get quieter and quieter."

"Any pattern to who's affected?" asked Bruce.

She started pacing again. "None that I've been able to find: different professions, different ages, different places of residence..."

Tony spoke up: "When we came here, it seemed to get better the closer we got to the castle."

Elsa nodded as she stopped by the window and looked out. "That's because those who haven't caught it yet are still happy to join us here for fun and company; they who have not only avoid me and my family and even my supporters as much as they can but don't seem to be able to enjoy anything anymore. As far as I can tell, those who continue to spend time here near me do so because they're still unaffected, not the other way around."

Bruce got up and stood near her, looking down as if hoping he could see some answer she couldn't. "What can cause something like that?"

"I wish I knew," Elsa sighed.

"An extreme case of Seasonal Affected Disorder?" Tony suggested, completely sincerely. "My grandfather suffered from it."

"SAD is not contagious," said Hawkeye.

"It's probably nothing," Elsa said, turning around. "Nothing magical, anyway. People fearing me is nothing new."

"Yes, it is," Banner said firmly. "I remember what this place looked like before – nobody saw you that way. Why would that change all of a sudden with no explanation? Why would so many people change?"

"And why now?" Hawkeye added, standing up and crossing his arms. "You said this started two months ago?"

"Yes," the queen told him. "Just after winter began.

Hawkeye nodded as she confirmed his theory. "The same time the cold started, too."

"You think there's a connection?" Tony asked.

"Anybody here believe in coincidences?" Hawkeye asked in reply.

"Why would something that spreads cold also make people depressed and angry, aside from indirectly?" Bruce wondered aloud.

Elsa raised her head, a deep thought forming in her eyes. "Maybe Kristoff wasn't too far off with what he said about real frozen hearts."

Hawkeye looked at her and repeated, "Frozen hearts?", but before she could elaborate, Banner spoke up:

"If there is a connection, we'll find it."

Tony found it strange that the queen didn't seem comforted by the promise. "I'd like to hope it's something that could be fixed that easily, but... I hate the thought of something harming my people that way."

"It's not your fault," Bruce assured her.

Elsa looked up at him and said, unconvinced, "I'm supposed to protect them."

"You are – in every way you can." Stark and Barton didn't understand what Banner meant until he said, "Your harbor should be frozen, but it's not. You did that, didn't you?"

"Yes," answered Elsa, no less troubled. "That's just about all I can do. I wish I could just stop this winter altogether."

Tony's curiosity got the better of his manners. "You mean you can't?"

Seemingly unbothered by his bluntness, the queen simply explained, "Unfortunately, I only have power over ice, snow, and cold, not universal control over weather. I can thaw ice and snow, but I can't make it warmer. I've done my best to make this brutal winter easier on everybody, mostly keeping the fjords unfrozen so ships can continue getting in and out – it's still bitterly cold, but at least trade and travel hasn't been entirely brought to a halt."

"Well, that certainly explains why people would complain about having a ruler with magical powers," Tony said sarcastically.

"Many of them blame me. They rave about how I'm freezing everyone to death and yell for me to stop the winter, but I can't reverse a winter I didn't create."

Tony was bewildered by the absurdity of that. "Why do they think you've been trying to help them if they think you're behind it?"

Elsa actually smiled as she answered, "That's what Anna, Kristoff, and our friends have tried telling them, but they won't listen or explain. Nobody needs a reason to hate anything anymore, it seems."

"There's a reason," Hawkeye said confidently. "Hopefully, we'll find it when we find the reason behind this cold."

"Yes." Elsa's expression suddenly hardened with intense determination. "If there is a connection, I want to help in any way I can. This unnatural cold and this plague have to be stopped."

"They will," Bruce told her, as they turned face to face again. "We'll figure this out. That's a promise."

Stark smiled contentedly as he watched the two of them. "Lucky thing we crashed here, isn't it?"

"Yeah... the one place where something else strange is going on..." Hawkeye, who didn't share his teammate's interest, observed. "Has this... plague struck anywhere else?"

Elsa quickly turned towards him and said, "Not that we've heard of, but why would we? Who would see anything odd about people being more unhappy than usual this winter?"

Hawkeye shook his head as he mulled over the puzzle. "Why here, then? What is this all about?"

"We should take a look around," Tony suggested. "Look for anything unusual."

"We don't have time," Hawkeye replied, shaking his head. "We don't know what's causing this, but we know where it is, and it's not here. We need to get to the source of this cold wave as soon as possible."

"Why can't we do both?" Tony wondered nonchalantly. "One of us investigates here, the others proceed to the source?"

"Splitting up is a bad idea, Stark," Hawkeye said decisively.

"If we were investigating an ancient, empty, boarded-up, haunted house, I'd agree with you, but..." Stark began.

Barton didn't let him finish. "It's too dangerous."

"He's right – we can't take that risk," Banner concurred, not looking anyone in the eye as he remembered how the other guy had frightened everyone the last time he was here. He'd been able to look forward – however foolishly – to passing quickly through here, but his practice never to return to the scene of a previous incident was too deeply ingrained in him for him to think of spending any prolonged period of time here without his stomach churning. A paranoia he could never shake insisted that the longer he stayed, the greater the chance someone would find out. Someone who remembered would figure it out, and then everyone would know! His fear of that happening far outweighed his fear of what Elsa would infer from his words.

"I agree," Elsa chimed in, turning towards the other two. "The sooner you solve this mystery, the sooner we can put an end to this, right?" She then looked back at Bruce, and he saw this was her honest conclusion about the best course of action: _Priorities..._

He nodded at her ever so slightly. _I know_.

Stark was the one who called out, "What if we could find some answers here?"

"There's no time," Barton repeated.

While the two of them continued to argue, Bruce shook his head to tell Elsa that he didn't think it was a good idea, but she merely raised her eyebrow quizzically at him. _Why not?_

He closed his eyes briefly and sighed before opening them again. She understood; she realized what painful memory he was reliving and shook her head in response. _That's irrelevant._

The fear of discovery was too great; he shook his head again and lowered his eyes. _No, it's not. I can't._

She folded her arms and grinned at him. _Then why did you come here?_

To his surprise, he grinned back. _Why does it matter? Do you really want me to stay?_

She took a step towards him and held her head high. _If I did, I could order you to._

He leaned comfortably against the wall, jerking his head once in the direction of his teammates. _This is our mission_.

She shook her head in silent laughter. _Until you brought it to my territory._

Still grinning broadly, he took a step towards her to show he wasn't intimidated. _Fine – what do you suggest?_

He had brought them back to what they could speak of out loud. "It all depends – do you think you could learn anything in Arendelle that could help you?"

There was a pause before he confessed, "I did last time." Her eyes widened in eager curiosity, and his burned with the desire to tell her everything, but the sound of his friends continuing their debate a few feet away made them unable to forget this was neither the time nor the place.

"And now?" He couldn't respond, so Elsa turned and raised her voice as she said, "Perhaps we should ask your partners what the plan is." Their two companions both instantly fell silent and snapped their heads in her direction. She let them look blankly at her for a second before asking sweetly, "I was just wondering how long you plan on staying?", her smile growing more mischievous when she turned back to Bruce.

What they were planning on answering at that time will never be known because, at that moment, all eyes swiveled around to the door as knocking was heard from other side. Elsa didn't move but said, "Enter," loudly and clearly.

One of their sentries opened the door slightly, allowing the sound of footsteps and voices – one male and one female – to drift in from the hallway. The guard bowed and began, "Pardon me, Your Majesty, but you wished to know when..."

The queen smiled in understanding and raised her hand to signal there was no need for him to finish. "Yes. Thank you for the warning. Hold her off as long as you can." He bowed his assent and retreated back through the door, pulling it closed behind him, as she turned back to her guests. "My apologies, gentlemen. This will only take a minute." The voices outside – more than before – were right on the other side of the door now. "My experience has shown this is the best way to handle this situation." They could hear the conversation getting louder and more argumentative. While Stark and Barton were focused on the door, wondering what was going on, she turned to Banner and whispered, "It's better this way – it'll be over much more quickly than if she caught me alone."

Bruce realized what she was getting at just when the knocking began, more frantic than last time. Elsa smiled as she released a let's-get-this-over-with sigh before calling, "Let her in!"

The door burst open to admit a young woman with strawberry-blonde hair tied up in a thick bun, with a tall, blonde man following closely but not nearly as quickly behind her. She had just stepped over the threshold when she asked at rapid speed, "Elsa, what's going on? Are you all right? I heard they found some suspicious strangers in the mountains, and they said you left right in the middle of the..." Her eyes had swiftly darted around the room, taking in the sight of the three foreigners, but stopped abruptly when they reached Bruce.

Her male companion closed the door behind him and took advantage of her sudden silence to say, "I tried to stop her."

"I know," said Elsa, walking towards the girl. "Gentlemen, allow me to introduce my sister, Princess Anna, and my brother-in-law, Kristoff." She gestured towards her visitors and said, "This is...", apparently uncomfortable with pronouncing their names.

Tony got the message. "Anthony Stark," he said with a bow.

Hawkeye did likewise. "Agent Clint Barton."

"Dr. Bruce Banner."

"I remember you," the princess said very blatantly in his direction before turning to face them all. "You're from Outside, aren't you? It's been a while since any of you have come through here." She curtseyed as she finished, "It's nice to meet all of you. Welcome to Arendelle!"

Kristoff's greeting was much more laconic: "Hi."

"Nice to meet you, too," said Tony, highly amused by this addition to the picture.

"Nice to see you again, princess," Bruce said softly.

"You, too," Anna said to him excitedly. "I knew you'd be back."

Tony turned his head very slowly from the princess to Banner, his raised eyebrow and evil grin saying very audibly, _You don't say?_

Bruce was giving his persistent friend a warning glare when he heard Kristoff ask him, "Do we know you?"

Not knowing how much they knew and unsure what they ought to know now, Bruce turned to Elsa and let her explain: "Dr. Banner passed through here a few years ago and stayed with us for a night." (Nothing out of the ordinary in that.) "He and his two friends were on an expedition to the Great Northern Wilds when they got lost and found their way here."

The princess gasped while her husband asked, "You're going where? At this time of year? In this weather?"

"We've been sent on an important mission," Hawkeye answered.

"A mission?" the princess repeated. "For what?"

"I'm sorry, that's classified," the secret agent explained.

"Since when is chasing bandits classified?" Kristoff wondered, grinning in amusement at their evasiveness.

"We're not after bandits," Tony informed him.

He shrugged and asked, "What else is out there?"

"I'll tell you later, if I can," said Elsa. "Right now, we have some important things to finish discussing."

"Why can't you tell us now?" he sister asked suspiciously.

"Anna, you know some things need to be confidential. If it's safe, I'll..."

"Safe? Confidential? What's going on here? Elsa, is everything all right?"

Elsa put her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Everything's fine, Anna. It has nothing to do with us."

"Then what are you talking about in here?"

"Like they said, they have an important mission to accomplish, and I offered to help."

Anna seemed determined to get more details. "With what?"

"That's what we were discussing."

"Alone? Shouldn't the captain or the council be here?"

"This is something I prefer to handle alone."

"Why? What is this about?"

"I'll tell you what I can later," Elsa said in the same calm, authoritative voice she'd maintained throughout the conversation.

"But... but..."

Anna was interrupted by Kristoff stepping forward and asking, "This wouldn't have anything to do with the... strange stuff that's been going on lately, would it?"

Elsa looked at Banner and then at his friends. Hawkeye nodded that she could tell the truth, so she gave them her honest opinion: "Probably not."

Hawkeye raised his eyebrows questioningly at his teammates, who nodded their votes that they could trust the rest of the royal family with more details. "Your queen has informed us of recent events here. We don't know if what we're investigating is connected, but if it is, we hope we'll be able to help."

"What are you going to investigate out there? Snow?" Kristoff asked sarcastically.

Fortunately, Anna spoke up before he could notice his listeners' reaction: "I knew something wasn't right! Is it happening where you're from, too?"

"Not in the same way," was Bruce's answer.

"What do you think it is? What's happened to everybody?"

"We don't know yet," Hawkeye told her.

"You have to find out! We'll help in any way we can!"

"Where's the rest of your army?" Kristoff asked them.

"This is a covert mission. It's just us," Hawkeye explained.

"Then how are you going to get there?" he asked next.

"We should work that out now, don't you think?" Elsa asked him, nudging her sister with her arm.

"Oh, yes!" Anna exclaimed sincerely before she seemed to get it. "Yes... yes, you should. And we should go... let you do that. Come on, let's go." She looped one of her arms through her husband's and curtseyed with the other. "So sorry to disturb you, gentlemen. Wonderful meeting you. I hope you enjoy your stay here!"

"Good luck," was Kristoff's simple but sincere farewell as he tried to lead his wife away, but she seemed reluctant to go and walked slowly, looking back over her shoulder and stopping to listen.

"We can't stay very long, actually," Hawkeye said to Elsa as they returned to the table. "We need to get going as soon as possible."

Elsa, who hadn't sat back down, asked, "By land or sea?"

"Land."

"Only one of us can fly now," added Tony. "Our... vehicle is only good for our trip home from here now. Any suggestions?"

"I'll arrange something right away," Elsa assured them. "It's too bad you didn't come tomorrow. I have business I need to finish with the new Duke of Weselton before he leaves in the morning, including his farewell banquet tonight."

"Then we'll leave as quickly as we can and let you get back to it," Hawkeye said decisively. Tony saw the princess cringe at the news as she looked back over her shoulder again.

"I'm so sorry, I know how important this is," Elsa said as she began strategizing in her head. "But he's been very anxious to mend things between our nations ever since his uncle died six months ago. I don't know how I could excuse myself the rest of the day without explaining everything to more people than I would prefer, or looking suspicious... Maybe I could ask him to meet early... I can reschedule that meeting with the architect about the new Church... then the banquet's not until this evening..."

"Why don't you invite them?" Princess Anna had gotten as far as the door before her voice caused everyone to turn in her direction. She stepped up to the table and said sheepishly, "I mean, I- we could take care of whatever they need today..."

"We?" Kristoff asked.

"Anna..." Elsa didn't get any further.

"...And then you can take care of things with the Duke and everything else you need to get done today..."

"Yes, but..."

"...Then no one would need to know what's going on, their secret would be safe, they could stay for the party tonight, and leave tomorrow."

"Anna, I don't think..."

"I mean... would one day make much of a difference?"

Elsa seemed unable to deny her suggestion had some merit. She looked to her guests for their opinion. Hawkeye instantly said, "We can't stay here a whole day."

"They can't stay, Anna," Elsa said, as if that settled it.

"Not even for just one day?" Anna pressed.

"It's just one day, guys," said Tony.

"Travelers stay here all the time; we have plenty of room," Anna argued.

"We do," Elsa admitted.

"You do?" Hawkeye asked.

"They do," Banner confirmed.

"It's no problem," said Anna.

"Is that a problem?" asked Elsa.

"No, there's no problem," Tony said confidently.

"So you can stay?" Anna asked hopefully.

"Sure, we can stay," Tony answered in complete content.

"We can't stay," Bruce argued.

"You're more than welcome to stay," Elsa said quickly.

"Come on," said Tony. "It's just for the night."

"Yeah, just for the night..." Bruce repeated.

"Okay, but just for the night," Hawkeye reluctantly agreed.

"Good," Elsa sighed in relief. "We have a lot of work to do. I'll finish with the Duke and everything else scheduled today as quickly as I can. Kristoff, see that they have everything they need to be on their way tomorrow."

"You can count on me," he replied.

"Anna, can you handle the preparations for the banquet tonight?"

"Of course!"

"Thank you."

"You are inviting them, aren't you?"

Kristoff tried to stop her. "Anna..."

"I-I don't..." Elsa stammered.

Bruce and Hawkeye started protesting at the same time, etiquette forgotten: "No, we can't..."

"We're not here to party..."

The princess was undeterred. "Oh, please, it'll be great. There's gonna be dinner and music and dancing..."

Elsa tried to tell her, "Anna, they have more important things to do right now..."

"But they're going to be here for the night anyway – what harm could it do?"

"Yeah, what harm could it do?" Tony repeated.

"We have to invite them," Anna told her sister. "They're our guests!"

"I'm sure they don't want to come," Elsa said uncertainly.

Anna simply turned to the newcomers. "Oh, I hope you'll join us! I'd love for you to come!"

"Well, if you insist..." Tony conceded, grinning widely.

"Stark..." Hawkeye warned him.

"The princess has invited us, gentlemen," Tony pointed out. "It would be rude to turn her down."

"We have a job to do," Hawkeye said, as if that settled the matter.

Stark, apparently disagreed. "And how will sitting alone in a dark guest room be more productive?"

"We need to stay hidden," was Banner's argument.

"Oh, no one will think anything of it," Anna claimed. "Our gates are open to everyone."

"They're open to everyone," Tony repeated.

"Now that you're here, there's no reason not to come, right, Elsa?" Anna asked in her sweetest little sister voice.

"Well, of course, we'd be happy to have you, but..."

Tony relieved Elsa of the burden of continuing: "The woman who has volunteered to help us would be happy to have us."

"Just go with it," Kristoff advised the queen. "Why fight the inevitable?"

"You're more than welcome to come," Elsa finally said. "But it's up to you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," said Tony.

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty – we'll see," Hawkeye said politely.

Bruce leaned over and asked him, "What just happened?", but he only raised his hands helplessly.

"Very well." Elsa paused before adding, "It'll be crowded. Everyone will be busy having a good time. It might give us a chance to talk. Alone..." Bruce looked up at her at the last word before he could stop himself. They maintained eye contact for a second before she turned aside.

"Great! Then it's settled!" Anna exclaimed in triumph.

"Settled," Tony concurred.

Elsa looked back at Bruce again, and they both smiled. _Alone..._

"We should go now," Kristoff suggested. Half the room couldn't have agreed more. He let Elsa open the door and dismiss the guards before leading everyone else out after her.

Three minutes later, as the entire group was walking down the hall, Hawkeye found an opportunity to whisper, "What are you up to, Stark?"

"Hey, she started it," Stark replied, gesturing towards the redhead walking ahead of them.

Banner walked up next to them. "So what do we do now?"

"Get some transportation and supplies, get some sleep, get back on the trail first thing tomorrow," Hawkeye said tonelessly.

"What about the suit?"

"I'll get it tomorrow," said Stark. "No sense freaking everyone out by powering it up and putting it on around here."

"What about the jet? We can't just leave it there," Bruce worried.

"It's as safe there as it would be anywhere else," Hawkeye reasoned. He removed something between the size of a jump drive and a folded-up flip phone from his pocket. "I locked it down remotely when we were arrested. No one's getting inside."

"We'll see about that," a voice they couldn't hear said miles away.

Realizing he was almost there, Hans put the mirror back in his satchel as he trudged through the snow, never more grateful for his knack for foreign languages. He chuckled as he remembered how his brothers had teased him about his studies when he was younger, insisting it was a waste of time, that the Southern Isles never dealt with the barbarians in those parts of the world, and even if one of them ever needed to someday, it certainly wouldn't be the twelfth and last spare! He'd make sure to gloat about that next time he saw them!

He reached the top of the hill and glided down the slippery slope, never losing his balance once, stopping perfectly on his feet at the bottom of the valley. He'd heard of and seen pictures of crafts like the strangers', but he'd never seen one for himself before. He walked around it, wondering what it could do and what other strange things they had inside. He hadn't thought much about the world it came from for years (they had so little information about it, it was pointless to consider seizing power there – better to stay where he fit in, with people whose ways he knew and whose trust he could easily gain) and had no idea how these visitors would complicate things. Could they possibly be a threat? How did they intend to stop the winter?

He finally reached his hand gingerly towards the metal surface. When nothing happened, he reached farther down and pushed on what he'd seen was the entrance. A loud noise caused by something he couldn't see made him jump back, followed by a voice coming from nowhere saying in English, "Access not authorized."

Hans didn't know what magic they had protecting this, but he decided it was safer not to test it. Obviously, he wasn't going to learn anything more here. He pulled the mirror out again and said, "Show me the strangers." They were still in the castle with the royal family. "Who are you?" he whispered.

A few hundred miles away, another eavesdropper observing the same scene whispered, "Excellent," before focusing her gaze on Hawkeye. "Interesting…" She wasn't the only one who thought so.

"Oh, Kristoff, isn't this exciting?!" Anna gushed.

"I'm reserving judgment for now," her husband answered as he turned and looked back at the strangers, conversing together in their own language.

Elsa was the only silent one of the party as she walked ahead, lost in her own thoughts. _Answers_, she hoped as she passed a window. _Maybe I'll finally get some answers._ Answers to why her beautiful home seemed to look uglier to more and more people every day.

Bruce was thinking the same thing a few feet behind her. "I'm with Barton – this can't be a coincidence. But what could do this? How?"

"Maybe it's proximity," Tony theorized. "The effects start close to the source and then spread out. Maybe, eventually, countries farther away would reach this next stage – first it freezes the world, then it freezes... how did she put it?"

"Frozen hearts."

This time, there was nothing to distract Hawkeye from the memory the words conjured up:

"_You have heart." __The feeling of ice spreading through his veins, cooling his anger, dulling his senses, clouding his mind, freezing his will, his emotions, and his self before they could protest. No reason to resist, no reason to disobey, no reason to care. Cold, empty, complete, perfect, blissful peace..._

"Frozen hearts... nah, forget it, that doesn't make any sense," Stark concluded.

"She thought it might," Bruce recalled.

"She was probably joking, you know, just a metaphor."

"This isn't a metaphor, this is real."

"She said herself it's probably nothing."

"You're kidding, right?" Bruce called over to Hawkeye, "Barton, tell him there's no such thing as a coincidence."

"_Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart, you will know peace..."_

Hawkeye raised his head and, without looking at the others or altering his pace, looked straight ahead. "It's probably nothing."


	6. Belly of the Whale

_Twang! Twang! Twang!_

Hawkeye didn't drop his arm until he'd emptied his entire quiver. Shooting an arrow wasn't exactly a strenuous task, yet he was panting and sweating as he walked forward to retrieve his weapons from the row of crowded bullseyes. He'd lost count of how many times he'd done this already, but he was sure it must have been a few hours since he'd asked Kristoff if there was a place he could practice alone for a while. He missed the challenges he could get out of the high-tech facilities at S.H.I.E.L.D., but Arendelle's soldiers' training rooms had space and targets, and that was good enough for his purposes.

Nothing cleared the head like archery. Whenever he pulled back on that bowstring, every part of his mind and body automatically focused on the task of aiming and shooting, locking out everything unrelated to that act. So it didn't clear the head as much as force you to clear your head in order to do it – either way, it was just what he needed.

_Twang! Twang! Twang!_

_Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!_

Several icicles hurtles through the air from behind him, landing dead-center right alongside his arrows. He turned around to see Queen Elsa strolling towards him. "Impressive," he said before turning away and going to collect his arrows again.

"Likewise," he heard her say behind him.

As Hawkeye pulled his weapons free, the icicles dissolved into a fine powder that swirled up in the air and gathered together before disappearing. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon, Your Majesty," he said.

"I have a few free moments and wanted to see how things were going. Kristoff just filled me in; he said I would find you here. I hope you didn't mind me watching."

That was an odd statement to hear from someone who lived here, let alone the ruler of the land. "Not at all... I hope you didn't mind me practicing here for a while."

"You're more than welcome. I hope everything's going smoothly?"

"For the moment. We pretty much settled things for tomorrow and decided to take a break," he said as he rejoined her.

"Yes, I heard. Your friends didn't join you?

He deduced from the tone that when she heard he was down here, she didn't come looking for him. "No, when I left them, they were up in one of the rooms you lent us, talking."

"Oh." Her mild disappointment faded into mild surprise as she joked, "How rude of them."

Hawkeye shrugged and briefly returned her friendly grin. "I don't mind," he assured her as, sensing she wouldn't consider it impolite, he turned away from her and focused as he took aim again. "I... prefer to be alone."

"I know how that feels," he heard her say as he let the arrow fly and hit the target dead-center again. "You have a gift."

He smiled faintly in amusement at the irony of which one of them said that. "Not a gift, just experience."

"Is that the only reason you shoot as if it's missing that would be a challenge for you?" the queen asked him, equally amused. "It's like you have some sort of super vision."

"You could say that," he admitted, not arrogantly or boastfully but casually, as if he thought nothing of it. "I can see to shoot the pit out of a cherry two hundred yards away without damaging the fruit. That's how I got the nickname Hawkeye."

"Fitting," the queen observed. "I could sense there was something different about you."

Thinking of the other Avengers, the archer said dismissively, "There's something different about all of us," as he prepared for another shot.

"Yes, I know."

He fired and turned to the queen as he loaded an arrow with his other hand this time. "Really? How much do you know about Dr. Banner?"

"More than most people, I'm sure," she answered, calmly but firmly, confirming what he'd suspected.

"How fortunate for us that you were so readily willing to invite us in, Your Majesty..." _Twang!_

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Most people wouldn't be." Most people who knew about the Hulk would be far too afraid; she obviously knew his secret, yet she wasn't.

"Most people wouldn't be comfortable staying here," said the queen as she conjured up a swirl of snow and twirled it around her head and shoulders for a bit.

"Some, maybe, but not most – at least, not where we come from."

She shot an icicle from her arm at the same time he shot the arrow. Both landed on the same point at opposite angles. "So people in your world don't fear magic anymore?"

"Oh, no they fear it," he corrected her. "It's just that there's more people to fear..."

"That must be comforting," she said as she threw a ribbon of snow forward that froze into solid, sharp projectiles in mid-air before they hit their targets. "I've never met anyone with powers like mine."

"Where do they come from?"

"I've been asking myself the same question for over twenty years."

"There's a term in our world for people who are born with superhuman abilities that can't be explained; they're called mutants."

She held out her palm and watched some snow dance above it like a flame. "Any of them have ice powers?"

"I don't know them very well," Hawkeye explained as he fired three arrows at once. "The only person I've ever met with ice powers was..." He stopped as the memory of the first time he'd met a Frost Giant filled his mind again.

"Yes?"

He shook the images out of his head as he tried to aim again. "Never mind. I actually never saw him use them," he said truthfully.

Queen Elsa noticed his hesitancy. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Hawkeye tried to tell her as he lowered his bow and returned the arrow to the quiver.

He was sure he hadn't given anything away, but she looked at him suspiciously, like she could tell he was concealing something no matter how stoic he looked on the surface. "Yes, I can see that..." was all she said, clearly not believing him.

He stepped away from her and began collecting his arrows for the last time that day. "Really?" he asked without looking at her, genuinely curious, not only about how she could see through him but why she would care.

She followed him but kept a few paces behind. "I told you, I could sense something different about you. The way you talk, the way you look, the way you act towards your friends... it..."

"Made you feel uneasy?" he guessed, annoyed that being a quiet loner always made everyone automatically fear you.

"No, I was going to say, it... reminded me of the way I used to be." Forgetting the danger of showing her his face, he turned to look at her. "What happened? What have you been through?"

"_How many agents?"_

"_Don't – don't do that to yourself, Clint."_

She was studying his face, obviously aware that there was some painful past replaying in his mind. He knew that she had noticed him clench his jaw as his heart raced beyond his control for one second, that this was someone who knew all the tricks and whom you could conceal nothing from...

"Nothing worth mentioning," he said, stowing the last of his weapons on his back and turning to leave the room.

"I know how you feel." She said it too sincerely and sadly for him to dismiss it as patronizing rhetoric. "I know what it's like to think you have to..."

Not wanting to let her finish, for some reason, he stopped short and turned back to her. "Why are you so curious?" he demanded, since she obviously considered them equals.

Unfazed, she walked towards him and answered, "We have something in common, you and I. I'd like to help, if I can."

"Is that what you told Banner when you first met him?" Hawkeye didn't know what made him say it; clearly, he'd been spent too much time with Stark today.

"Yes."

The fearless directness of her answer, as opposed to the blushing and awkward embarrassment he'd expected, made him feel about two inches tall; her unwavering serenity left a bigger impression on him than her crown or her powers had done. He looked into her eyes, daring him to deny what she'd claimed, and realized what _she_ had apparently realized about _him_ from the start – that beneath her calm, quiet demeanor was someone who had survived something terrible and traumatizing but refused to let it control her anymore. Someone who was brave enough to confront the pain of the past. He suddenly wanted to ask what _she_ had been through, but all he did was bow and say, "Forgive me, Your Majesty. I thank you for your concern and your offer, but I'm sure you'll understand if I say I like to work things out on my own."

"I understand," she said with a nod.

She was right – they _did_ have a lot in common, which was why he could see that she knew there would be no point in pressing him any further; she knew how she would react if someone did that to her. Again. "Thank you," he said.

"I'm sorry for prying," she said next. "It's none of my business; I only wanted you to know..."

He wouldn't have interrupted, but her voice trailed off, allowing him to nod and say, "I know, I know. But, please, don't worry if I keep to myself. Like I said, I prefer to be alone."

"Everyone needs to be alone sometimes," the queen agreed. "But, after a while, it can get pretty..." She flicked a small mist of snow into the air again. "... cold."

"Well, the cold never bothered me anyway." Hawkeye bowed once last time before turning and marching out of the training room, not noticing the curious way her eyes followed him as he opened and closed the doors firmly behind him.

* * *

"I was hiding out in Norway when some mugger jumped me and attacked a woman. Next thing I knew, I was shivering on a mountainside covered in snow, surrounded by a cage of giant icicles, and heard a woman asking me if I was okay."

"Queen Elsa?"

"Yeah." Stark and Banner were helping themselves to tea from a tray when Barton showed up. "She said he'd scared some ice harvesters something fierce, and she'd gone to investigate, found him, and managed to trap him."

"Wow," Stark said in awe and admiration, having seen the kind of power it took to bring down the Hulk. "Who do you think would win in a fight – her or Thor?" Banner sighed in annoyance, which seemed to make his friend reconsider. "You're right – it would depend on which world they were on..." As Barton finished removing his wrist guards and reached forward to help himself to a roll from the tray, Stark added, "How about Elsa or Romanoff?"

"Would depend on the weapons, right?" Hawkeye guessed sarcastically.

"Come on, that's not what you're supposed to say," Stark groaned.

Bruce leaned back and drank his tea as Hawkeye glared at Stark and said, "You're right. I'm supposed to ask, when are we leaving?"

"I thought we settled this."

"We've been here too long already. We're dragging our feet; things weren't supposed to go this slow."

"What's the matter? Too quiet for ya'? Need some action? Dying of boredom?"

"I'm not the only one."

Bruce shook his head. "I'm fine, really."

"Fine," Hawkeye conceded, "but I can't wait 'til we get out of here and things get moving again."

"Boy, what did Elsa do to you?" Tony joked, but he caught Barton's fleeting reaction and repeated, seriously, "Wow... what did she do to you?"

"It's not her, it's this place," Hawkeye insisted.

"Tell me about it," Bruce agreed with a shiver, and Hawkeye threw him a quick look of thanks for helping him change the subject.

The others couldn't deny he had a point; they all remembered what their journey through town with Kristoff had been like a few hours ago – the downcast, annoyed, and even hostile looks they'd gotten from passersby and shopkeepers as they stocked up on the supplies they'd need for the new trip they'd had to plan. Even the few people who greeted them normally were subdued by their neighbors' gloomy attitudes. All they had managed to learn, however, was that some sufferers were affected more strongly than others – some looked at them and the world with cynical apathy, others with disgust and loathing. Tony had been about to start asking questions before Kristoff told him it was pointless – they'd been trying to get answers for two months to no avail. Whatever it was, it worked fast; a sentry who had smiled at them as they'd left just groaned in annoyance when they'd returned. Bruce and Tony had been mulling it over, bouncing theories off each other, ever since they'd got back.

"Besides the queen being able to shoot ice out of her fingertips, did you notice anything unusual last time?" Tony asked Bruce now. "Even something small that didn't mean anything at the time?"

"I've already seen more of this place this visit than I did last time," Bruce told him. "After we talked for a while, Elsa... the queen brought me down here, gave me a room for the night, and I left the next morning – wasn't time to see much."

"That was nice of her," Stark mused aloud. "What did you two talk about?"

"The difficulty of controlling powers that are fueled by emotions," Banner said nonchalantly before taking another drink of his tea – no point in holding back once they knew. Maybe now he'd even be satisfied.

Taken aback, Stark said, "Oh," clearly not prepared for such a straightforward answer.

"She's the one who taught me my secret."

"The... 'I'm always angry' thing?"

Bruce nodded. "Yeah. I owe her a lot..."

With uncharacteristic gravity, Stark replied, "Guess we all do..." and shook his head in shame before adding, "I'm so sorry."

"For what, constantly prying into my business?"

"No... for getting it so wrong." Smiling contentedly, Tony drained the rest of his tea in one drink as Bruce's look of relief vanished. "Well, now we absolutely have to get to the bottom of this."

Bruce didn't have the courage to ask what he was referring to. The question evidently hadn't occurred to Agent Barton, who simply said, "Since we're here 'til tomorrow anyway, we should go out and investigate more thoroughly tonight."

"What happened to, 'It's probably nothing?' " Stark asked him with a disturbing glint in his eye.

"I said 'probably'," the suspect replied, glaring at his opponent. "We need more information."

"I agree," Tony said with a nod. "So what are we waiting for?" He turned and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Hawkeye called after him.

Stark turned around and said, as if confused, "Uh, to get ready for dinner?"

"Dinner?" his two teammates repeated.

"You're not seriously going to that?" Barton added.

"Have to," Stark said, as if it couldn't possibly be any more obvious. "We need to gather information, remember? Besides, it would be a shame to waste those clothes the servants brought up for us."

"What kind of information do you expect to find there?" Bruce asked him. "The queen can't tell you anything."

Tony smiled knowingly at his friend. "I'm sure she can't. Her sister, on the other hand, is an entirely different story." With that, he left.

Bruce hung his head as Hawkeye told him, "You're doomed."

"He's not gonna learn anything," Bruce said hopefully.

"Maybe we'll get lucky, and he'll actually hear something useful that can tell us what we're looking for. The possible threat to international relations aside, it might be a good idea having him keep an eye out there for any clues while I look around town." On that note, he left, too.

"Yeah, but who's gonna keep an eye on _him_?" Bruce said to himself once he was alone. As much as he believed that Stark would make it the most awkward nightmare if he went, the prospect of leaving Stark to his own devices, with no way of knowing what ideas the princess would put in his head, was even more terrifying.

He never expected coming back to Arendelle to be this complicated. Even though he knew Elsa was right about how tonight might give them a chance to talk alone, he'd had no intention of taking her up on her offer. First of all, it was too dangerous. There would be too many people. Knowingly and willingly walking into a crowd went against every instinct he'd developed since the accident; a room full of strangers who didn't know his secret would be even more nervewracking than walking onto the Helicarrier.

He couldn't help wondering if Elsa would share his reservations if he asked her. Not that he would get the chance. Therein lay the second problem with seeing her tonight: he wouldn't be able to act naturally around her in front of everyone. He couldn't treat the woman who had helped him so much like a nameless foreign traveler to whom she meant nothing would be expected to.

_Why not? You only met her once – what does she mean to you?_ He honestly didn't know the answer. In order to find out, he resolved to go.

* * *

Hans had never been able to understand Arendelle's unique custom of permitting its royal family and nobility to mingle so closely with the common people. He knew that it had started two or three generations ago, which was why it was so shocking when the previous king and queen closed the gates and seemed to put an end to it, and that the practice had even spread to some of their allies like Corona, but he was positive he wasn't the only one who found it peculiar. The scene he was now watching in the mirror never could have occurred in the Southern Isles: the castle dining hall, with a long table set along one side for the royal family and their most honored guests, the rest of the room full of small, circular tables for the less prestigious guests to gather and eat at their own leisure, and waiters and servants passing to and fro amongst them all, smiling, laughing, and even stopping to chat briefly with those they waited on!

Yes, it certainly was the queerest set-up for a royal banquet he had ever seen, even if the queen _hadn't_ been occasionally shooting blasts of snow into the air, like icy fireworks, that dissolved in midair as they fell, or granting requests to quickly make a new, little ice sculpture shaped like some building or animal and levitating it down the table to its commissioner, or instantly cooling off any soup or hot chocolate that was too hot to just the right temperature. Amazingly, she sat at the head of the main table, with the princess and her husband on her right, and the guest of honor (tonight, the new Duke of Weselton) on her left – you would think they would have done away with that point of etiquette as well!

"Oh, Elsa, how do you expect to maintain your people's respect if you don't keep them in their place?" Well, it was a lesson she would have to learn the hard way...

* * *

A fresh snowfall had started by the time Hawkeye reached the town square. He had expected to find the streets even emptier than they had been earlier in the day. To his surprise, they were actually more crowded, with people going from door to door and shop to shop like the snow, ice, and wind made no difference to them. He would have been less surprised if they were complaining or grumbling about the weather, but they weren't, which was even more bizarre.

He stepped up to a cart and purchased a bag of hot chestnuts. The vendor, who wasn't wearing gloves or a hat or scarf, took his gold pieces and counted his change like a robot. Hawkeye stood and looked at him for a second, trying to determine what was different about him, before the man gruffly told him to move on and pushed his cart away right through the snow, not even bothering to aim for the paths that had been cleared.

A few feet away, two young boys were bent over something they were examining on the ground. Once Hawkeye strode closer to them, he could see, without being able to explain how or why he could, that one was affected and the other wasn't. The former swept a layer of snow away from a patch of ice with his bare hand and began pounding on the ice with a rock. "Amazing," he said. "See how strong it is?"

"Uh, yeah, sure..." his confused friend mumbled, obviously not finding the subject very riveting. "Come on, it's freezing out here, let's go inside."

"You go, I'm not finished here. Look at these patterns..." And he kept probing and analyzing the ice as if it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen.

"I said leave me alone!" Hawkeye turned around to see a young woman pulling her arm away from a young, distressed man and storming off.

The poor fellow followed after her. "Please don't go out now, dear, it's so cold..."

"Don't be ridiculous, it's just fine," she insisted, breathing out a frosty mist with every word. Her beau tried to brush some snowflakes out of her hair, but she slapped his hand away. "Get off me!" She then seemed to forget he was there as she pointed at a single flake as it tumbled down past them. "Aren't they beautiful? Look at how perfectly the lines and angles combine to form each one – so symmetrical, so flawless..."

Hawkeye stepped aside as an old man passed him, but the man growled at him anyway, "Watch where you're going," as if he'd hit him.

Another man coming the opposite direction, evidently thinking the warning was meant for him, retorted, "_You_ watch where you're going! You've got no business here anyway!"

"Why don't you stay out of my way?! Confounded people! Man can't even walk in peace!"

Hawkeye left the two to argue and walked on until he saw a man about his own age leaning against a wall outside what looked like a pub, alone except for a wolfish-looking dog, like a Husky or a Malamute, whining next to him for attention. Hawkeye ventured asking him, "You lost, sir?" The lonely dog barked and licked his hand in greeting.

"No."

"I'd get home then, if I were you – getting pretty cold out here," he suggested, petting the dog, so much friendlier than his master.

"Feels fine to me."

"Really? What would you say..."

"Get away from me." The man reached out and gave him one strong shove. "Leave me alone."

Since he could see he would be no more help than anyone else, the archer complied, but the grim feeling those affected seemed to exude didn't entirely wear off until he was a good distance away. He was just reaching the corner when a woman with a basket full of bread slipped and fell on some ice. He raced forward to help her up. "You all right, ma'am?"

"Oh, yes, sir, thank you," she answered with a grateful smile as they refilled her basket. "Thank you very much." She curtseyed to him once before moving on.

He watched her walk away, trying to figure out what was different about her than everyone he'd just seen, but on the surface, she looked the same as those who were affected. It didn't make any sense; if this strange plague left any visible sign, however slight, he would have been able to see it. If there was magic at work here, it left absolutely no trace that the eye could detect, although some other sense he couldn't identify apparently could.

He was pulled out of his musings by a voice demanding, "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing," Hawkeye told him honestly, instinctively gripping his bowshaft with his right hand. Several sticks came loose from the bundle of wood the man was carrying on his back and spilled on the ground, but he simply kicked them out of his way and stomped off as if picking them up wasn't worth being in the presence of another human being for a few extra seconds.

The cart the man must have bought his wood from was still parked in the street a few yards behind, the thinly-clad driver handing a few logs out to a woman bundled up from head to toe. "Oh, thank you, sir," she said brightly as she handed him a small pouch. "I thought my children would freeze tonight."

The salesman stopped in mid motion to examine a small log. "Look at these rings! The space between these two suggests..." And he rambled on about the patterns he saw in the wood while his customer vigorously rubbed her arms, trying to keep warm.

One thing was certain: those affected were not upset by the cold. If anything, their affliction appeared to give them immunity to, if not an affinity for, it. The colder it got, and the more snow and ice in the air, the more active and aware they became, as if they now thrived on the cold instead of the sun. They didn't seem to feel the cold any more than they could feel pleasure or compassion.

"Frozen hearts..." Hawkeye whispered to himself. And his only clue to the cause was that it liked the cold…

* * *

All the beauty of snow and ice without the cold – no wonder the people loved it when the queen put on a show with her powers. She put on a grand display as they entered the Great Hall, like a white and silver light show, wrapping it up with a flourish when she reached the dais at the head of the room, whipping streaks of snow rapidly around the ceiling. When the dancing began, she left a flurry of snowflakes falling gently from the ceiling that melted before they fell low enough to touch you. So far, it was shaping up to be the most interesting party Tony Stark had ever attended.

When the music began, the dancers didn't form two lines that moved up and down the room as he'd half-expected but broke up into myriad groups and pairs. Tony stood aside and observed for a while before joining a group for a quadrille, keeping his eye open for when the princess and her husband took a break, which, judging by her limitless supply of energy, would not likely be any time soon. Not that the other revelers seemed any less excited; it was almost impossible to believe the mood could be so festive and lively in here and so dreary and dismal out there. But according to Queen Elsa, those affected chose to stay away. Why? What was different about those who had come to celebrate with her? He couldn't see any difference between those he saw now and those he'd met earlier. He wondered if JARVIS might have been able to find something, but, then again, his system hadn't been programmed to be compatible with magic... Maybe they should have brought Jane Foster along for this mission; she was more comfortable with magic than any scientist he knew. Maybe it was a woman thing...

When the next dance ended, he decided to ask Banner if he'd noticed anything. Once he'd made his way over to where the latter had been standing, he began to think he had. "Hey, you all right?" he asked upon seeing the troubled expression on his face.

Bruce jumped at the sound and then went back to looking all around the room, including above them, unable to shake a very familiar and very uncomfortable feeling. "I feel like we're being watched."

Tony looked around but could see no one staring at them. "I... think you have it backwards."

"Somebody's watching us. Trust me, I know – I've had years of practice."

"And you've let it go to your head." Not wanting his friend to waste the night paranoid about being discovered, Tony tried to tell him, "You don't want people to stare, you've got to stop acting like you're at a funeral. Loosen up. Relax. Enjoy the party."

"I second that!" Princess Anna rushed over to them, her husband panting behind her. He got to stop and catch his breath as she curtseyed and tried to say as formally as she could, "Good evening, gentlemen. So glad you could join us! Hope you're having a marvelous time?"

The two men bowed politely to her as Bruce answered, "A great time, thank you." It was true. He'd managed to keep mostly to himself, except for Stark, faking ignorance of language to avoid much interaction with anyone. So far, the evening had been blissfully uneventful, and he was actually willing to believe that he would get through the night with no alarms or problems.

Meanwhile, Stark answered her, "Best time I've ever spent in Arendelle, my lady," causing her to giggle. "Everything's great – the food, the music..."

"Thank you, I..." the princess started to say, but then she jerked her head around as the musicians began a new song – not slow but not very fast paced, either, rather like the tempo of the Wedding Dance. "Oh, this is my favorite song!" she squealed, grasping her husband's arm in both her hands.

"Whoah, I don't think the feeling's returned to my legs yet, Anna," the exhausted Kristoff warned her.

"Just one more! Please, I can't miss this one!"

"Come on, you've got to let me pace myself; I don't have your energy," he claimed as she tugged on his arm.

"Oh, well, if you can't keep up..." she said tauntingly.

He didn't take the bait. "That's right, I can't," he said as he pulled his arm free. "Deal with it."

"Oh..." the deprived girl moaned in disappointment.

"A-hem!" Tony cleared his throat loudly. "Um, pardon me, sir, but if you don't mind..." He bowed again and held out his hand. "May I have the honor, princess?"

"Oh, I..." The young couple exchanged one happy look and a shrug of, _Why not?_,before the princess took his hand. "The honor's all mine, sir." As he led her to the dance floor, Tony winked once over his shoulder at Banner, who was looking away as if trying to pretend he couldn't see them.

* * *

"You said you were going to fix that roof today!"

"What's the point in fixing anything in this worthless house?!"

Hawkeye could hear the argument all the way across the street. "You built it, not me!"

"Fine – I'll fix it when you can make me a decent dinner!"

"Well, what did you expect me to get in this town?! We never should have stayed here!"

"You're the one who refused to move! Don't mind us all getting killed by that wicked witch!"

"Well, why don't some of you big, strong men do something about that?! When is someone going to get rid of her?!"

The two voices stopped arguing, unless you counted trying to outdo each other in the insults and curses they heaped on the wicked witch who was apparently responsible for all the problems in the world. Hawkeye could see two girls illuminated by the single lighted window on the second floor, huddled close together as if trying to protect each other from the vicious sounds from downstairs. What looked like the vines of dead roses clinging to the walls of their house seemed to become gradually, completely covered in a thick layer of frost right before his very eyes.

* * *

Beating around the bush was never Tony's style. "My Lady..."

"Please, call me Anna."

If those were her orders… "Anna... I know girls have a code about this sort of thing, but, if you don't mind my asking..." She followed his gaze over to where Banner stood talking with Kristoff. "... what happened between him and your sister last time he was here?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," she answered as he spun her around. "Two years ago, Elsa went into the mountains looking for some terrible monster the ice harvesters said they'd seen. I wanted to go with her, but, of course, she wouldn't let me. She was gone for hours, and when she finally came back after dark, he was with her, and she said the monster was gone, but she never said what she did or how she saved him, and she gave him a room for the night, and he left the next day."

"She said she saved him?"

"Yeah, she... well, actually, she never said that, exactly. She never said anything about what happened up there. Whenever I asked, she just said she wouldn't discuss it..."

The way her face fell made Tony say comfortingly, "Maybe she was trying to protect you."

"From what? What was that? Is it from your world? Have you seen it before? Do you know?"

If he couldn't lie to a room full of strangers about the identity of Iron Man, he certainly couldn't lie to a young girl about what her sister had found one day. "I have no idea what happened that day," he finally said, "but I _am_ glad your sister was there to help my friend."

"I am, too. I just hate it when she keeps secrets from me. She kept her powers secret from me my entire life!"

That was definitely news. "Well, don't hold it against her. Where I come from, that's actually a pretty common practice. Lots of people with special powers try to keep their identity a secret. To protect themselves and their loved ones."

"That's what Elsa said, but when she did that, it didn't exactly work out..."

"It never does. Personally, I was never a fan of it. Faking reality in any way whatsoever never solves anything – only makes things worse."

"You can say that again…" Anna looked particularly bitter as she whispered, "I hate liars."

* * *

Arendelle had a lot of inns that seemed mostly dark, quiet, and empty, as if it was usually far more bustling than it had become recently. The Duke and the rest of the foreign guests must be staying at the castle. As Hawkeye passed one of the few taverns that actually seemed to have some lodgers, he could hear that the first floor (no doubt the bar) was packed with men who were affected, railing against the queen:

"We're all doomed!"

"She'll be the death of us all!"

"He was right!"

"It's madness!"

"Monster!"

"We should have listened to him all along!"

"We have to stop her!"

"Somebody kill that witch!"

* * *

"It's not that she doesn't trust you..." Tony assured the princess.

"Let me guess – it's that it's not her secret to tell, right?"

By the expression on her face, Tony judged that his smile confirmed what Elsa had no doubt been forced to tell her a million times. "Unfortunately, it's not mine, either. Don't worry – _you're_ not the one she's trying to protect this time."

Anna smiled as they dodged another couple that was slightly out of step. "Well, what _can_ you tell me?"

"Depends on what you can tell me."

"Is he married?"

"No."

"Is he a criminal?"

"Absolutely not."

"Is he under an evil spell?"

"… … … In your language… I can't say."

"What was he doing here?"

"Got lost."

"What's he said about my sister?"

"Absolutely nothing. I could tell he had someone on his mind, but he refused to ever tell me anything about her. Either too painful or too precious to share. Interesting, isn't it?" They both smirked, drawing the same conclusions from his persistent silence. "What about your sister? She never told you anything about the monster, but she ever say anything about him?"

"Nope – she was too busy worrying about him. Never told me why she missed him so much..."

* * *

"What are you doing out here, stranger?"

The soldier lifted the pole, holding the lantern at the end above both of them, and Hawkeye recognized him as one of the soldiers who had arrested them earlier in his zeal to protect his queen. There was something different about him now.

"Just stretching my legs, sir," the agent said slowly, examining him intently, trying to pinpoint the change. It was the eyes; he couldn't say what, but there was no mistaking that something about them – or in them – looked different.

The soldier pushed him aside like a piece of trash that had blown in his path, no longer concerned about the safety of his kingdom or doing his job, just annoyed by the sight of another person. "Well, move along. Sick of you troublemakers, ruining everything."

Hawkeye didn't move but called after him, "You feeling all right, sir?"

Without turning around, the man yelled, "Mind your own business, pest!" and went back to marching his patrol like a zombie.

That's what they were all becoming – zombies, freezing from the inside out, and the only symptom a strange look in the eyes. Just like his last brush with mental magic...

Zombies, frozen hearts, Frost Giants... how sure was Selvig that Loki was dead?

It was just after that unpleasant thought sent a chill up his spine that he looked around him with the sudden, inexplicable, but unshakable feeling that he was being followed.

* * *

"Thank you for the dance, my lady."

"My pleasure, sir," Anna said happily as Tony kissed her hand after they rejoined their other companions.

"If you'll excuse me." Something about the wink Stark gave her disturbed Bruce even more than the fact that he walked off, leaving the three of them alone.

"Have you seen Elsa?" Anna asked Kristoff.

"Been talking with those dignitaries I can never understand for the past two dances," her husband informed her. "She hasn't danced all night, but it looks the Duke finally wore her down."

Anna looked at where he was pointing and saw her sister making her way to the dance floor. "Yeah, it would be rude if she didn't dance with him at all the last night of his stay," she said, as if she detested whoever made that rule. She then turned abruptly to their visitor and asked, "Do you dance, Dr. Banner?"

"What?" he instinctively replied. "Uh, no, not really, I... I don't know any of your..."

"Oh, I'd be happy to teach you." And she held her hand out to him as if they were old friends. "Would you do a lady the honor? Please?"

He turned to Kristoff, his stunned, wide eyes asking, _Can she do that?_ Kristoff smirked back at him; Bruce supposed rank, well, outranked gender when it came to engaging a partner for a dance here. As if Anna ever struck him as the type to care about what was proper... "I-I couldn't..."

"No, come on – I insist."

He felt like she had invited him to jump off a cliff, his mind and body recoiled from the suggestion with such horror. She didn't know who she was talking to, what forces she was messing with, and he couldn't explain the danger he would put her in just by touching her.

"No, really, I'm sorry, I..." No believable excuse came to him. Feeling like a prisoner of war being dragged to interrogation, he looked frantically between husband and wife until Kristoff nudged his shoulder and gestured towards the dance floor, telling him to just get it over with, it would be less painful this way.

"May we?" the princess entreated him again.

Steeling himself like he was about to face a firing squad – before the accident, that is – he cleared his throat and said, "We may." He held his hand out to her and breathed a sigh of relief when she grasped it and led him away, his reason desperately trying to tell his fears that his touch wasn't going to hurt her.

* * *

To test his theory, Hawkeye left the town and walked all the way down the harbor to the deserted, rocky shore of the fjord. The feeling of being watched didn't go away. He fitted an arrow on the string and scanned the area for the spy. He could see no one, but there was plenty of cover around here. He walked back to the docks but could still see nothing suspicious. He was trained too well and his senses too precise not to recognize the difference between imagination and certainty. Someone was definitely watching him, but he couldn't see them anywhere, and if he couldn't see it, it wasn't there. He reflexively adjusted his gaze to look for small surveillance cameras or microphones before he remembered this place didn't have any – not the kind he was used to, at least.

"More magic?" he said to himself as he walked along, keeping his eyes peeled and his arrow ready to fire. He silently thanked Kristoff for talking them into getting some of those crossbows earlier and wished he'd thought to bring one with him tonight – it worked better for situations where you had to keep your weapon constantly level like you were looking out for the Punjab lasso of the Phantom of the Opera.

"So where's the phantom?" he whispered. "Where are you hiding?" Forget about sight lines or vantage points – where was the best place to hide? There had been no one amongst the rocks at the edge of the fjord, but what about across it, in the woods? He headed for the bridge they had crossed that morning. No footprints in the fresh snow. In town?

That tavern... What had he heard them say? "He was right!" "We should have listened to him all along!" Who was "he"? What were they up to? Still on his guard, Hawkeye made his way back and stood across the street, his bow lowered but his arrow still notched, ready to mount on his shoulder at a second's notice.

In a small, windowless room on the second floor, Hans looked at where the man in the mirror had stopped and gasped in shock. It couldn't be a coincidence. "How did he know?"

Neither of the two watchers heard the voice say, "He sees too much," right before the wind picked up, tossing the fallen and falling snowflakes wildly about, launching them through the air like buckshot.

* * *

"So, what did you and Kristoff talk about?"

"Uh... he says he's really worried about his friends."

"I know – it started with some of the ice harvesters; they were the first to catch it."

"I'm sorry."

"Why won't they just tell us what's going on?"

"Maybe they can't. They might not understand what's going on any more than we do." Talking with Princess Anna was easier than Bruce expected, and made it harder to dwell on his worries and anxieties about the situation.

"This kind of thing ever happen in your world?" she asked him.

"The severe cold weather, yes; the rest of it, no."

"Where are you from anyway?"

He could see no danger in telling her the truth, although he doubted it would mean much to her. "Across the ocean – it's called the United States of America."

"You came all the way across the ocean two years ago?"

"No. I was... living in Norway then, just over the mountains in the south."

"What were you doing there?"

He tried to stall with the old, "It's complicated."

Anna smirked as if she'd fully expected such an answer. "I thought so. Does Elsa even know?"

"Why would you..."

"Because, you know, she never told me anything about how you two met or where you came from or why you had to leave so suddenly. We get a lot of stranded travelers needing help here – what castle doesn't? – but never anyone that mysterious."

"It wasn't by choice," said Bruce, not looking her in the eye.

"I figured. What were you running from?"

He certainly hadn't been prepared for that. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"What if I guess?"

He actually grinned at that. "Sounds like you have a theory already."

"I'm not the only one. Kristoff said he thought you were a fugitive hiding from the law, but I told him Elsa would never help someone like that."

"Thank you."

"My maid thought you might be a long-lost cousin who everyone thought was dead and had escaped after being held for years in an enemy dungeon, but I checked, and we don't have any of those."

"Must be good to know."

"And she told me that Elsa's maid thought you had amnesia, but I said there was no reason to keep that a secret."

"Good point."

"Personally, I almost thought for sure you were a runaway slave."

_Define 'slave',_ Bruce thought, but what he said aloud was, "Fortunately, no."

Anna smiled in obvious relief. "I hoped that wasn't it."

"You're right about one thing – I was on the run when I met your sister, and I've been running since then. I'm sorry I can't tell you more," he said, and he meant it. "Trust me, it's better if you don't know." She shook her head and grinned in a strange way. "What is it?"

"You sound just like Elsa sounded when she..." Her expression softened. "Never mind. I'm sorry. You must have... really been through something," she said sympathetically.

The look in her eyes forced him to answer truthfully, "Yes... but it's not so bad anymore."

"I can't imagine what it must be, but... I hope you're all right."

"Better than I've been in years," he said with a smile.

"Good – Elsa's been so worried about you."

"You must be mistaken. There's no reason for her to worry about me."

The princess didn't seem to realize he was being sincere, as she grinned mischievously at him before joking, "You're probably right. I mean, how bad could it be? It's not like you're cursed with dangerous, uncontrollable powers like..." He didn't know if her brain caught up with what she was saying or if his own face gave him away, but her words came to an abrupt halt as she looked intently up at him. His fear was too great for him to even try to think of something to say, so he stood there facing her until she finally asked in a much different tone, "That's it, isn't it? So that's why she... No wonder Elsa misses you so much."

It felt like he looked down at the floor for a long time before he raised his head and said, "I don't have powers like your sister's..."

She saw right through his double-meaning. "You don't have to tell me. It doesn't matter. I understand," she said simply, giving him a reassuring smile. "It's okay. I'm not afraid."

"You would be if you..."

"If Elsa's not afraid, I'm not. I trust you."

The music ended, and she curtseyed to him and walked away without another word. He stared after her until she stopped to give her sister a brief hug and a wink, followed by a glance in his direction. Before Anna turned away again, she nodded at him in a way that reminded him of the way he used to nod in approval to students when they passed a test.

* * *

The wind stung every inch of exposed skin like a swarm of wasps. There was no chance anyone in control of their faculties would show themselves in this. Once again wishing he'd chosen a weapon that would have left one of his hands free to shield his face, Hawkeye stepped into the street and began making his way back to the castle. The wind seemed to change direction at the same time, blowing the snow right into his face. He turned his head sideways against the blast, struggling to hold his arrow straight on the string.

Between the decreased visibility and the difficulty of shooting straight should it come to that, he felt extremely vulnerable. Tonight was one night he wouldn't have minded having another agent to back him up. He had to admit he would have liked to have a competent partner like Natasha watching his back right now.

Natasha... he bet she would have figured out the mystery here hours ago; it was her specialty – one of many. He grinned as he recalled the blizzard they'd battled in that last night in Budapest. It really was too bad they hadn't been assigned to this mission together, too. He found himself actually wishing he was working with her on this right now – they made a great team. How would they have handled this together?

As he imagined how this assignment might have gone with the Black Widow by his side, the snowflakes seemed to part before him, leaving a clear path in the storm. He eventually reached the castle gates cold but unscathed.

* * *

Stark didn't reappear after Kristoff and his wife returned to the dance floor. Grateful to find himself alone, Bruce remained standing with the onlookers, munching on some tiny, chocolate-covered pastry he'd grabbed from a passing waiter's tray. It wasn't until Elsa looked over at him, catching his eye, that he realized that he'd been watching her ever since the others had left him alone. He returned her smile, wondering if she had noticed before he did and, if so, how he should feel about that.

He became aware of something else as he watched her and her partner go through the motions of the dance – namely, that he wasn't the only one watching her. He tried to tell himself he was imagining it, but from where he was standing, the eyes of every young man in the room seemed to be fixated on her. He wondered how far the intentions went that lay behind their longing gazes; if they were more interested in her rank, her beauty, or something else; and if any of them had been given more reason to hope than the others.

The discovery was too unsurprising to think much about after he'd noticed it, however; finally getting to see Elsa in her role as queen was far more interesting. It was the first time he'd ever watched her function in this environment for more than a few minutes, and he expected to see a different side of her, but he could detect no change, no act, no stiffness, no phoniness, no show put on for the crowd. She was the same woman he had met that day on the mountainside, right down to her wardrobe. Even her hair was braided in the exact same way. He realized he'd never seen her with her hair down and wondered how it would look...

He was still watching her when the dance ended and she dismissed her partner with a half-bow. The obviously disappointed man kissed her hand and walked off reluctantly. Bruce found he wasn't surprised when she started walking in his direction. He bowed politely when she reached him, as anyone would be expected to. "My Queen."

They both smiled at his feigned formality. "Doctor," Elsa replied in the same neutral tone, which became more teasing as she asked, "I hope my sister didn't give you a hard time."

"Relatively, no."

"What did she want?"

He shrugged. "Just to tell me her conclusions about a certain mystery."

"She did?" She sounded playfully indignant and nervous. "What else did she tell you?"

"More than I could tell her, I'm afraid. And, yet, I think she learned more than I would have preferred..."

"She means well. She can just be a little... overwhelming at times."

They both laughed – not insultingly. "Yes, she's very... enthusiastic, but she's a nice girl. You're lucky to have a sister like her."

They both turned and looked at where the redhead was spinning around with her husband. "Indeed, I am," said Elsa. She moved to stand next to him. "How has the rest of your evening been?"

"Very fine, thank you," he answered as they both looked straight ahead at the room before them.

"You haven't seemed to be enjoying yourself very much."

"Oh, I am, I assure you, I'm just... I'm not a big fan of parties."

"I know what you mean. They used to make me so anxious. I agonized over it for days in advance, terrified that I was going to mess up and ruin everything."

"And cause a disaster beyond repair," he added. They both smiled, appreciating finding someone so sympathetic. "You make it look so easy now, though."

"It just took some practice." Her altered tone indicated they were now referring to something entirely different.

"I've been... practicing something new myself," Bruce told her as they kept their faces pointed straight ahead.

"I'm glad to hear it. For how long?"

"Since a few months after..." He could sense someone staring at them out of the corner his eye. He turned to his right, but the man and woman quickly turned their heads away.

Elsa cleared her throat; he assumed she was able to fill in what he'd been about to say. "I hope things were going well after... at the time."

"Well, not at first. I..." As he was about to get specific, he became keenly aware of how many ears were nearby and stopped.

"Nothing serious, I hope?" Elsa asked, looking worried.

"Nothing more than usual. But it's under control now."

He could hear her eyes light up. "You, too?"

Some bystanders on their other side turned to observe the queen and her strange companion now, but Bruce tried to ignore them. "More or less. Thanks to you."

"Thanks to me?" Their nearest neighbors were starting to whisper now. Elsa turned and glared at them, causing some to fall silent and the rest to move along. "I don't understand."

"It's a long story," said Bruce, looking aside at people who continued to stop and glance and try to pick up a few words before moving on. He couldn't tell if it was because he was committing some unforgivable breach of etiquette, because they were just curious, or because they were envious he was monopolizing the queen's company.

"I can imagine... it's been such a long time."

"Feels that way, doesn't it?"

"I've missed you."

It took him a long time to process her words. Eventually, he found the courage to turn to face her and respond: "I've missed you, too." He could feel their audience's eyes boring into him and turned away. "This isn't how I expected to see you again."

"Nor I."

"Is there any way we can be less conspicuous?"

"Just one..."

He knew what she was getting at. "I don't have much practice with this, remember?"

"What better time to start than now?"

"That would be a big risk for me," Bruce said gravely.

"I thought it was under control."

"Doesn't make the fear go away, does it?"

"No," she admitted with a sigh of empathy. "But you can't give into it."

He smiled again as he asked, "You have to let it go, right?"

"Exactly."

He looked at her and slowly raised his hand. "I don't know if I can."

She held her own hand out to him and said encouragingly, "You'll never know if you don't try."

"I want to try," he decided and, with a deep breath, he took her hand in his own. It was the first time they touched, and he was surprised at how easy it was. When he raised his head and looked up into her eyes, he knew that she understood the fear he was struggling against right now, that it had been her own fear, and there was no reason to hide it from her. She waited patiently, letting him take the time he needed to realize nothing had happened to her when he touched her. She was safe. She was all right.

When the music for the next dance began, she told him confidently, "It'll be fine. Just follow my lead."

Reverting back to the teasing tone from earlier, he bowed and said, "As you wish, Your Highness," and walked with her to take their place in the set.

It didn't take long before he noticed that, even though he still had a vague sense of being watched, no one was focused on them so intently anymore. They blended in now. They were doing what everyone else was doing, and they were surrounded by people too occupied to overhear them.

At first, he was too distracted by the surrealness of the situation, by the feel of his hand in hers, on her shoulder, around her waist, to say anything. Elsa was the first to speak: "Still afraid?"

"No, just shocked," he confessed. "When I came here, I never expected to end up here like this."

"Neither did I," Elsa said before her voice dropped. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Neither did I," he echoed, "but I hoped I would. So I could thank you."

"Thank me?"

"For what you taught me." He took a deep breath before plunging in. "About how to control it. It took a few months, but I finally decided to give what you said a try. I ran off where I couldn't hurt anyone and just let it go. I let myself get angry. I unleashed everything I'd spent years trying to hold back."

"And what happened?"

"I got used to it – just like you predicted. After I stopped concealing it, my body got so used to being angry that it stopped reacting so easily. Before, I tried to stop myself from ever getting angry, from ever feeling anything, but you were right; that only made it harder – impossible, even. Now, I don't fight it; I've accepted it. I let myself feel; deep down, on some level, I'm always angry, and, since my heart can't tell the difference any more, it doesn't react unless it gets really bad. I'll never be able to completely control it, but it's so much easier now. I don't have to worry every second that something's going to set it off. I've been able to live, work, help people. All because of what I learned from you."

Elsa blinked and shook her head as she tried to take it all in. "I... never expected what I said to leave such an impact."

"It did. It changed my life."

"I had no idea. I was just trying to help..."

"You did more than that. I was drowning, and you saved me, and... I can't tell you how many times since then I've wished I could thank you for what you taught me... Elsa." It took an effort to say her name to her face, but he felt it was a payment she would accept.

She smiled when he called her by name. "I... I'm so glad to know it worked. I've been so worried about you..."

"You don't have to worry about me..."

"Maybe not for the usual reasons, but still..."

Now it was Bruce's turn to be taken aback. "I'm sorry – if I'd known, I... I never expected..."

"What? That I'd worry about you? We're friends, aren't we?"

"Yes, but... I guess I just assumed the queen had more important friends to worry about."

"I've never met someone else who understood what it's like," Elsa said tenderly. "Finding a friend like that... it meant a lot to me."

Bruce could echo her own earlier statement: "I... had no idea."

She shook her head as if to say it didn't matter anymore. "Well, I'm glad to know you're all right and that things have improved so much. What have you been up to?"

Where could he start? "Well, I joined a team that saved the world from an invasion by an evil sorcerer and his army of monsters from another world."

"What?!" she gasped, although he could tell she didn't doubt his words for a second.

"Might not be the best time to go into that," he said with a laugh. "What have you been up to?"

She laughed along with him before answering, "Nothing compared to that. Nothing much, in any case, actually."

"Interesting – I always assumed ruling a kingdom would be exciting."

"It is, in a way, but it's business as usual for me – sign a new treaty one day, meet with a visiting king the next, collect taxes, build new roads, administer justice, throw festivals... a great life, but nothing unusual. That is, until... well, you know."

He didn't want to make her talk about that right now. "I know... but aside from that, nothing exciting's been going on?"

"Nope."

"No major changes? No big plans?"

"Not at the moment."

He pressed her without knowing what he was fishing for. "What about this deal with the new Duke of... where is it... Weselton?"

"Couldn't have gone better," she explained. "He was nervous I would hold a grudge because his uncle once tried to kill me, but I would never hold that against him – he had nothing to do with that."

"Right," was all Bruce could say.

Elsa didn't comment on his reaction or elaborate on this allusion to her past. "I think he's satisfied. He got the new trade agreement he was hoping for."

"You sure that's all he was hoping for?" He felt himself grin without planning to.

"That's all he can reasonably hope for," Elsa said firmly, grinning back.

"So he did have something else in mind?"

"I suppose, but I don't."

He'd deduced as much from how attentive the Duke had been to her tonight. "Business seems to be thriving."

"Fortunately, it is."

"Anything else in progress for Arendelle? More pending trade agreements, new alliances... prospective kings?" What was he saying?

"Not that I'm aware of," Elsa said with a playful smirk. Well, as long as she wasn't offended...

"I'm glad to hear everything's going smoothly," said Bruce, carefully pronouncing every syllable to keep his face straight and his voice serious. This became all too easy when he added, "I mean, except for..."

"Except for this new curse," she dubbed it.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this," he assured her.

"I thank you," Elsa whispered, "but I'm just so worried. What if it gets worse before you do? The cold started before this – what if something else is waiting to happen next? You three seem to understand more about it than anyone; I feel like you're our best hope, but I'd feel better if we could find some answers before you left."

"That would be pointless," said Bruce. "Our best bet is to go find the source and shut it down."

"Maybe, maybe not. I'd feel my people were safer if one or two of you stayed behind to keep an eye on things."

There was no hidden meaning to this conversation. Bruce shook his head. "Splitting up wouldn't be smart; in our experience, it never works out."

Elsa sighed in resignation but also smiled weakly. "Well, I trust you all know what you're doing."

"As much as anyone can facing the unknown."

"How long do you think it will take?"

"There's no way to tell at this point," Bruce said as the music ended.

"Then I wish you all luck tomorrow... Dr. Banner."

He heard the hesitation before she said his name. How arrogant would it be for him to correct her? To say, in its place, "Bruce" – the universal gesture of intimate friendship? To assume she needed his permission to address him like a friend? To imply they were equals by offering her something she had no right to take on her own? But after he'd confessed how much he owed her, how disrespectful would it be to begrudge her this, especially after she'd given hers to him when they first met? It felt unnatural to hear her call him by such a formal title; it was only right he should fix it now.

_Bruce_ – the word was on the tip of his tongue, ready to part from his lips, when she looked down and asked, "What's this?" as her hand brushed against something on his wrist that she hadn't noticed before.

He instantly pulled his hands free from hers, gripping his wrist as he avoided looking her in the eye. "Oh, that's just my heart monitor," he calmly explained. "It tells me how fast my pulse... my heart's beating. Lets me know if I'm in danger..."

"I see. Your world has the most incredible devices," she said, innocently untroubled, as they left the dance floor.

After that, all he could think about was what that gadget implied for him and everyone who got near him. At first, he was deeply depressed as he recalled why he had to take such precautions and all his fears of what lurked inside him returned. Before long, however, he was grateful that she had reminded him how things really stood. No matter how successful his control might be, he would never be completely free, he would never be completely safe, and he could never risk dropping his guard. It was something he should never let himself forget.

* * *

Ten of the fifteen minutes Tony had allotted before he went looking for Barton passed before the latter returned to his room to find his two teammates waiting anxiously for him.

"Who wants to go first?" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asked without segue as he began unstrapping his ice-encrusted weapons.

Tony shrugged but accepted. "Well, I asked around, and all of the foreign visitors I spoke to say nothing like this is happening in any other kingdoms they've been to. Whatever this thing is, it's contained only within Arendelle."

"Not contained – more like targeted," said Hawkeye. "Someone was watching me. I couldn't find them; they must have been using some sort of surveillance – magic surveillance around here, I guess – but it's not just random. There are people out there stirring up trouble, people who want this to happen."

"Yeah, we just don't know who, how, or why," Tony pointed out.

"Kristoff told me tonight that the ice harvesters were the first to be affected," Bruce revealed.

"But, even though some people are affected more strongly than others, time doesn't seem to be a factor," Tony added. "Severity doesn't correspond with when they caught it."

"Elsa's worried about it progressing," said Bruce. "She thinks there could be another, worse phase ahead."

"I don't blame her – anything's possible," Hawkeye said, crossing his arms.

"Especially if someone has it in specifically for her kingdom," Tony said ominously.

"Do you think they'll be safe until we get back?" Bruce asked.

"If not, there's not much we can do." Stark's teammates knew him well enough to know he wasn't being cruel or cynical, just stating a practical fact.

Hawkeye shook his head as he paced around the room. "We don't know what's gonna happen here next. We have no idea what we're dealing with." He finally looked up, walked towards the other two, and said, "I think one of us might have to stay here to monitor the situation – see what develops. There are answers here we haven't found yet; the solution might be here, not at the source of the polar vortex."

"What happened to splitting up being a bad idea?" Tony asked.

"It's better than ignoring what's going on here."

Bruce folded his arms and asked with a shrug, "All right, so, who's it gonna be?"

"It can't be me," Stark answered, as if he wished it weren't the case. "I'm the only one who can fly now – doesn't make sense for me not to travel."

"No argument there," Bruce agreed before turning to Barton. "If there _is_ anything to find here, you're the one who can find it, right?"

"Before tonight, I would've said, 'Yes,' no question," the archer replied. "But even if I could, I can't back out. Official assignment or not, I'm the only one here who's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; I have to see this through to the end. That means going on the mission I was assigned, not stopping to investigate some anomaly we find along the way."

Bruce couldn't remember how they ultimately came to the conclusion of who would stay behind. Probably because he'd been expecting it all along. How he felt about it, he couldn't hope to say – his fear, sense of a debt owed, restrictions of the superego, and personal desire were in too great a conflict to judge which was most prevalent in his mind.

* * *

Elsa and Hawkeye had agreed yesterday that it would be best if the three travelers – now reduced to two – left without an audience, so Elsa had arranged for her, Anna, and Kristoff to be absent for a few hours while they escorted their visitors back to where they crashed, where they would then retrieve what they needed before departing for good. Bruce wasn't present when Barton told her the change in the plan, but he noticed Anna wouldn't stop giggling or nudging her husband when they all ate an early breakfast together, which he spent wondering why his friends had such faith in him.

After breakfast, the group made their way out to the stables, where five of them piled into a sled pulled by two reindeer, and Hawkeye mounted a third. They would have been able to carry more in a sled, but a) they couldn't be sure what terrain they were heading for, and b) this would be faster; it still hadn't put an end to Stark's jokes about how it would be even faster if he just slung him over his shoulder and blasted off.

"Hey, our mother used to tell us stories about how she rode across half the world on a reindeer," Anna said in playful indignation.

"It's the only way to travel around here," Kristoff added.

"Well, when in Rome..." Tony conceded.

Hawkeye – who had worked in and been trained for much stranger conditions – tied a lead rope to the second reindeer, already loaded with all the food, weapons, and supplies he wasn't carrying in his backpack, double-checked the quiver of arrows now hanging from his hip like a sword, and nodded that he was ready. He and Kristoff snapped the reins, and they were off.

Bruce had been dreading that Stark would use up every last minute before they parted hounding him about what had happened last night, but he either chose to show him mercy, had learned enough from Anna and his own observations, or had his priorities in order, asking only questions about the area they were heading into and what they could expect. They reached the site where the Quinjet had crashed without incident. Hawkeye insisted they circle the area before approaching it, but no one was around; it looked undisturbed. The agent dismounted and unlocked the jet, going inside to get a tablet whose battery-power should last long enough for its GPS and other functions to be useful. Stark, meanwhile, remotely unlocked the glass compartment where he'd stowed the suit and stood outside the door.

"Remember what I told you guys about what you're about to see," Tony warned the queen and her family. "This armor I invented is unlike anything you've ever seen before. It'll be strange, even shocking, but trust me, there's nothing to be scared of."

"Yeah, yeah, we know, we know," Kristoff said impatiently. "Get on with it, already."

"Just don't freak out, okay?" Tony said one last time, apparently forgetting that slang didn't always translate well, before activating his wristbands. He was only a few yards away, and not falling from the top of a skyscraper, so the suit didn't need to zoom out to him quickly, but he still wasn't surprised at how they gasped at the sight of the metal monstrosity enveloping him from behind, completely covering him except for the circle of light now glowing very noticeably in his chest.

"Welcome back, sir," JARVIS' voice said in his ear once the helmet snapped shut. "Having a nice vacation?"

"Yeah," Tony answered. "Met a lot of nice people. Fill you in later." He opened the visor and looked at the three stunned faces before him. "I warned you."

"Incredible," Elsa whispered. "How did you build this?"

"Need a little more time to explain that. If you really want to know, I'll tell you when we get back."

"I wonder if I could make one out of ice," and Elsa held her hands up as she looked it up and down, as if she was already making the calculations in her head. "Or at least something like it."

"That just might be the second-most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life," Kristoff said dumbly.

Anna was the only one who still looked frightened. "What is that?" she asked, pointing at his glowing chest.

"It's called an arc reactor," Tony tried to explain. "It generates power. See, a few years ago, I was injured in a battle – well, an ambush, technically. Pieces of shrapnel lodged just inches away from my heart. I was able to build this to power a small electromagnet, which stops the shrapnel from reaching my heart, but it generates way more power than I need – enough to power this suit."

His story seemed to deeply disturb Anna, as she clutched her own chest and leaned against her husband, who threw his arms protectively around her, while Elsa placed a supporting hand on her shoulder. Tony certainly hoped it wasn't because it reminded her of any similar trauma she'd seen or endured, but how could _that_ be?

The tension was relieved by Hawkeye joining them and asking, "All set?"

"All systems are go," Tony confirmed.

"Be careful, guys," Banner told his friends.

"You, too," Hawkeye said as they shook his hands. "Take care of yourself."

"Too late for that," Bruce replied instantly.

"Good luck," Anna said as Hawkeye mounted his reindeer again. "I wish we were going."

"No, you don't," Elsa and Kristoff said in unison.

"We'll send you a postcard," Stark told her before turning to Banner. "Well, this is good-bye for now."

The two friends shook hands. "Just try to stay out of trouble," Bruce warned him.

"If you promise to do something for me."

"What?"

"Make it count." Stark gave him one wink before turning to Anna. "Keep an eye on him for me." She nodded in assent just before the visor snapped closed. "Next stop – Mordor."

Kristoff and the girls gasped again as the armor took to the air, hovering just a few feet off the ground. Hawkeye gave them one last, "Good-bye, and thank you for everything," and rode off, Iron Man turning to salute them before following in the air.

"Is this the part where we wake up?" Kristoff asked as they looked off into the distance after them.

"What now?" asked Anna.

"Now we wait," Elsa replied.

"And keep our eyes open," Bruce added. As he and Elsa turned to each other, he found the answer to what he had been unable to determine last night. He couldn't vouch for the wisdom of it, but the truth was, the prospect of spending more time with her was not unpleasant. He had to admit he was looking forward to it with pleasure. Why shouldn't he just go with it? Why should he worry that Arendelle would be any less safe than India? This wasn't the time to waste on paranoid worries and fears – they had an important job to do together.

It was just as he decided this that Elsa reached out and took his hand just like she had last night, as if she could see his resolve and wanted him to know they were in this together. All she said, however, was, "Thank you." He didn't reply but squeezed her hand to assure he was with her.

Smart move or not, there was no turning back now.


	7. Something There

"I want to show you something."

Bruce turned to the queen and nodded. "Okay."

Elsa, still holding his hand, turned to the dazed Anna and Kristoff, who hadn't yet recovered from the sight they'd just witnessed and were still gazing off in the direction where the two heroes had just disappeared from sight. "Do all soldiers outside have armor like that?" Kristoff managed to ask.

"No, no, not even close," Bruce said with a smile and shake of his head. "Tony Stark is... very possessive of his design."

"I never knew people had that kind of power," Anna whispered.

"Good thing nobody else saw it," said Kristoff, "or we'd have had a real panic problem on our hands."

"Those who would care, anyway," Anna reminded him.

"Guess we can trust _that_ to get the job done," Kristoff said with conviction as he shook off the stupor. "So, what's next? We stand here and freeze, or get back home before we find any more surprises?"

"You two go home," Elsa replied. "We'll meet you there later."

Kristoff looked quizzically at her and began to ask, "Wh-" before Anna silenced him with a small rap on the shoulder and, beaming, said, "Great idea. Come on, let's go," and dragged her husband toward the sled.

Kristoff tried to ask again, "But..."

Anna ignored him and asked, "Who's driving, you or me?" as she climbed up and took the reins.

"Wait a minute, we can't just..."

Anna grabbed his arm and tried to pull him up next to her. "Sure we can. They'll be fine, right, Elsa?"

"It's okay, Kristoff," Elsa said reassuringly. "We just... need to discuss a few things."

"But..."

"Do what the queen tells you, now come on," Anna told him.

Kristoff exchanged one look with Bruce before mounting the sled next to his wife. "Want us to meet you down below and drive you back?" he asked them.

"No, you take the sled home," answered Elsa. "We won't be needing it."

"I know, but..."

Before he could continue, Anna waved and said, "Bye!" and snapped the reins, causing the reindeer to take off and her passenger to fall back against the seat. "See you guys later!"

Bruce and Elsa waved back as the latter called, "Bye! Be down soon!" to the departing sled. The last thing they heard was Kristoff asking, dumbfounded, "What just happened?"

Elsa released his hand and said, "Come on, this way," as she turned to the woods behind them.

Bruce followed her and asked, "Where are we going?" He noticed that the snow didn't crunch under his boots but remained as firm as earth under his feet. He guessed by the way Elsa walked effortlessly on top of the snow without her high heels sinking into the soft powder either that she was responsible for that.

"You'll see. It's not far."

With Elsa directing the snow and wind in their favor as they hiked, they made quick progress up the mountain. Every so often, her path led them out of the trees so that they had a beautiful view of the fjord, castle, and town in the valley down below, with the southern border of mountains in the distance beyond. Bruce stopped at one point and stared at the far off rocky peaks, Elsa stopping and walking back to him, waiting for him to speak.

"That's where we met, isn't it?" he finally asked.

"Right over there," she confirmed, pointing to a spot in the southeast of their current position, at a lower altitude. "You made it a little farther this time."

"A little," he repeated before they moved on.

They walked on in comfortable silence for a few miles; Bruce sensed that there would be plenty of time for talking wherever she was taking him. Plus, he was preoccupied by the novelty of walking on snow and ice without sinking or slipping. Eventually, he did ask, "Do you come up here often?"

"When I want to be alone," his guide answered him. "When I need some privacy to think, or relax, or blow off some steam in peace."

"Bit of a long walk for someone without your talents," he observed.

"That's the idea."

"Is it a secret?"

"Everyone knows it exists and where it is, but they also know not to disturb me here."

They were interrupted by a crunching sound he heard over his shoulder. Bruce turned around and looked up to see a tree branch above him bending lower under its load of snow, causing a section to shift down and fall off. Too late to outrun it, he instinctively raised his arms to shield himself from the cascade when the sound abruptly stopped. He opened his eyes to see a veil of snow held over him in midair. As he stared, it spread farther out and fell harmlessly around him in a shower of flurries.

"Thanks," he said as he walked up to Elsa.

"No problem." She reached up towards his head, probably to brush the snow off his hat, but stopped in mid-gesture and turned around, walking steadily ahead again. She also now waved the snow away from anything hanging over their path as they walked, causing it to rise in the air and dissolve.

"It's amazing, the way you do that."

"This is easy," said Elsa. "Not easy to learn, though. It took me twenty-one years before I even realized I _could_ melt and thaw ice."

"How long would it take you to thaw the entire kingdom?"

"I've only done that once – less than two minutes. But since it's still winter, it would just fall again anyway. I don't think I could stand actively keeping the snow and cold artificially at bay constantly for three months."

Bruce agreed, so he simply asked next, "What else can you do? Learned anything else new?"

"Not since I learned how to control them. I've refined my techniques, but I think I've reached the limits of my powers. No new abilities have appeared or anything, although..."

"Although, what?"

"Well, I've had this dream a few times that Anna and I laughed at, at first, but sometimes, when I remember it and start manipulating the snow, I get this feeling that makes me wonder, if I tried, if I could actually..."

"Watch out!" Bruce saw it before she did – a crack split in an overhanging branch just as they passed under it. He had only a split-second to react when he saw the entire limb give way. Without thinking, he yelled out and rushed over, pushing her out of the way. He heard her sharp gasp right before he heard it crash on the ground behind them. When it was over, he remained where he'd landed in the snow without moving, waiting for the small adrenaline rush to wear off, which, fortunately, thanks to his training, was quick.

He opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder to confirm they were safe. She lay next to him under his arm; she looked unharmed. "You all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm okay."

Elsa sighed in relief. "I should have watched where I was going. If you hadn't spotted that..."

"That was a close one."

"Yeah..."

He grinned. "Now we're even." He watched her grin back for a bit before it occurred to him they should have moved by now. "Uh, sorry, I, uh..." He pulled his arm away, releasing her. "I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay."

He cleared his throat and stood up, helping her to her feet. "We shouldn't be... talking... here in the snow..."

"Don't worry. I don't mind." She calmly shook the snow out of her braid and wafted it off them in waves from where it had stuck to their clothes.

"Right, I... I know."

"You sure you're all right?" She looked apprehensive.

He raised his wrist and pointed at where she now knew the alarm lay under his sleeve. "Yes, it's fine; it was quick."

"Good. We better pay closer attention – these mountains are dangerous in winter."

"Will your sister be okay?" he asked, looking down the cliff and wondering where their companions were now.

"They'll be fine – Kristoff could steer safely through these mountains in his sleep," Elsa said as they resumed hiking. "I think he feels more at home here than he does in the castle."

"Really?"

"Yeah – he grew up here training to be an ice harvester. He's been joining them on their expeditions into the highest, coldest mountains ever since he was a small boy."

"He was an ice harvester?" Bruce asked. He knew they were his friends, but neither Kristoff nor anyone else had mentioned that he was one of them, or maybe they had and it just hadn't registered because he never would have considered that. Bruce had assumed that he would have been... Well, that wasn't the sort of background he ever would have guessed he had.

"He still is," Elsa explained. "Not for money, obviously. He just loves the work – says he could never give it up."

"How did he..." Bruce caught himself in time to stop in mid-sentence, but Elsa looked pointedly at him, suspicious of his hesitation, and he could tell that she wanted him to finish. "How did he end up marrying your sister?"

Elsa answered softly, "He saved her life," and looked down at the ground – obviously, now was not the time she wanted to go into detail about whatever story lay behind that.

Bruce didn't ask for further explanation, but he did nod and say, "I see. So, his reward was..."

"No, his reward was a new sled, a medal, and a promotion. They got married a year later because he loved her and she loved him."

"That's... wonderful."

He wasn't surprised that Elsa knew that wasn't the word he had first intended to say. "It's more than that," she said with a sly smile.

Bruce smiled back and admitted, "It's also interesting. I'm glad it was so easy for them. I never would have guessed they would have been allowed to..."

"You're not the only one. But, as I explained to everyone who objected, the princess is free to marry whomever she wants."

He thought he detected emphasis on one particular word. "The princess?"

"Yes. It wasn't as if the king or queen or heir had tried to marry a commoner. That would have been unheard of. Fortunately for the two of them, the spare has more freedom of choice than the heir. The rules are much stricter for the actual ruling monarch."

"I figured as much," was all Bruce said in response, and they walked in silence again for a while.

"Here we are." Bruce didn't look up until Elsa's announcement, so he didn't see their destination until he was right below it. When he raised his head, his eyes widened in awe.

They were standing at the base of a long, elegant staircase made entirely of ice. At its top was a wondrous palace, its towers, spires, balconies, elaborately carved roofs, and tall, ornate double-doors all made of the same flawlessly smooth ice, glistening like pure silver in the winter sun and its reflection off the surrounding snow. His eyes wandered over inch of the surface, trying to take in every detail. Bruce told himself it was only natural to find such a sight here and that it should have been completely foreseeable, but he was still held enraptured by its breathtaking beauty; even if he had bothered to assume Elsa would have built such a structure, he never would have imagined it would look like that.

"When-when did you build this?" he whispered, still gazing up at the ice palace.

"The day I ran away, after my coronation. It was damaged during a battle, but I was so proud of it that I couldn't just forget about it. It was the first thing I ever created with my powers. The first time I used them in years without feeling afraid. The first time since I was a child that I allowed myself to love them again. So I rebuilt it and kept it. Cast my permanent chilling effect to keep it from melting in warm weather. It's been damaged occasionally, of course, but it's easy to make repairs. I've even added a few additions over the years."

"It's amazing."

"That's what Anna said, too," Elsa said, either pleased with or amused by his reaction. "Want to see the inside?"

He turned and looked at her. "Would I?"

Elsa strolled up to the staircase and walked confidently up the steps, heedless of the slick surface beneath her feet. Bruce followed more hesitantly, at first, glancing anxiously into the chasm below them, dreading with every step that he would slip and plunge into the abyss, causing who knew how much damage when the other guy hit the bottom, until he allowed his admiration for Elsa's graceful walk to distract him from his fear. By the time he realized what he was doing, they were at the top.

Elsa raised her arm, and the front doors, decorated with a beautiful snowflake design, swung open. Once they walked inside, Bruce could see the balconies of three floors above them, a grand spiral staircase carving a winding path through them all. A magnificent chandelier, made of abstract shapes and angles sewn together with mathematical precision, hung from the roof high above, while a fountain of millions of tiny, frozen droplets of water served as decoration for the entrance hall. The place obviously wasn't built to live, eat or sleep in. The design had been the end in and of itself, not any function it was supposed to serve; its only purpose was beauty and splendor.

"How long did it take you to build this?" Bruce asked as he looked around him.

"The first time, about three minutes," answered Elsa. "I haven't added up the time I've worked on it since then."

"I didn't know you'd studied architecture," he said, half-joking.

"That was my favorite subject when I was a girl. Studying geometry in my room was the closest I felt to being happy after..." She shook off the sadness the memories seemed to bring up. "Well, it paid off. Maybe I enjoyed studying that because I always had dreams of building this in the back of my mind."

"I've never seen anything like it."

He continued staring up at her handiwork until he felt her take his hand. "Come on – this way." Elsa led him up the staircase, stopping whenever he paused to look at something from a new angle. Once, he leaned over too far and lost his footing, sending him falling back. "Whoah, careful!" she exclaimed as she caught him by the arm.

Once he righted himself, he said, "Sorry," smiling awkwardly. "Thanks."

"No problem."

The main attraction at the top wasn't the chandelier but the view from the highest balcony, not just of the mountains but of the rest of the palace and the bridge of steps. The effect from here was even more awe-inspiring, just like an aquarium where you walk under and between the sharks and sea turtles is more exciting than watching them swim behind one wall of glass.

"Unbelievable. Look at this." Bruce turned his attention from the landscape and the magnificence of the building to the details of its craftsmanship. He couldn't get over how perfectly formed and polished the surface was. As he ran his gloves along the balcony railing, he observed, "Every piece is perfect, like glass or the most flawless crystal."

"They didn't start out that way. When I first began, the ice came out rough and uneven, until I shaved off the excess and smoothed it out."

"I wish I could have seen it!" Bruce said in a low voice, trying to picture how she had created this and sure he was failing miserably.

"It _was_ exhilarating," Elsa confessed as she looked around the room, a faraway look in her eyes. "I started by raising a platform, and the main pillars around it, like this..." She gestured at an empty space between columns, and a new one began growing between them. Bruce watched her arms work their magic, entranced by how effortlessly they brought the ice to life and gave form to the formless. Elsa looked at him once and smiled as if she enjoyed his admiration. Before he knew it, she was dissolving a wall and creating an entire new wing of the palace, erecting a new tower, raising the roof and then them as she conjured another floor beneath theirs, sculpting a second chandelier. It was a spectacular show, and Bruce greedily drank in every second of it as the artist worked away.

Elsa bowed when she finished, and her audience said, "Elsa, you're a master of your art."

"I'm glad you enjoy it as much as I enjoy making it," she replied.

"I could watch that forever," he said sincerely.

"Thank you... but I didn't invite you here to show off." He turned his attention to the architect, who looked as serious as she sounded.

Suddenly worried that she had bad news, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, everything's fine," she answered in a tone that he believed. "In fact, things are better than I expected... on one front at least." He took a few steps towards her, his face looking as confused as he felt. "I was worried that people would have a lot of questions about my mysterious, foreign companion last night and what we were talking about, but no one said anything about it."

"I tried not to say anything specific out loud. I didn't make anyone suspicious, did I?"

"No," Elsa assured him with a warm smile. "You did marvelously last night – you chose your words perfectly. I'm impressed at how you revealed nothing specific or gave anything dangerous away when we talked last night. But we can't talk that way all the time." He understood where this was going now. "There is so much I still want to know..."

"There's so much I want to tell you, too."

"But no one else can know; they wouldn't understand."

"My thoughts exactly."

"To keep your secret safe, I was thinking, we should never refer to it, never discuss your powers or what you've been through or what we have in common, anywhere but here. Where no one will overhear us or disturb us."

The danger of exposure was great enough that this didn't seem like overkill. Meeting or talking anywhere in secret down in Arendelle would have been asking to be overheard. "That's a great plan," Bruce said truthfully.

"I was hoping you'd approve. Any time we want to talk – _really_ talk – we'll arrange to meet here. We'll leave separately so it doesn't look like we're sneaking off alone..."

Bruce actually interrupter her: "_Aren't_ we sneaking off alone?" When she put it like that, something about this set-up seemed highly improper. So why was he grinning?

Elsa ignored the question (probably because the answer was obvious): "There will be nothing unusual in my coming here, and you won't be missed since you're free to come and go as you please while you stay at the castle, and any number of other people will always be absent at the same time we both are."

"True."

"Ideally, your friends will be back soon and this evil spell broken, and we won't have much time together, so..."

She intentionally let him finish this time. "So we better make the most of it."

"Exactly."

As they stared at each other, facing the inevitable mortality of their time together, Bruce couldn't help but wonder if, in that case, it would be smarter not to get more attached to her. His reluctance to point this out, however, made him realize that that wasn't what he wanted. He'd suffer for it later, but, for now, he wanted to be her friend. He wanted someone to open up to, someone who understood what life was like for him – something none of the Avengers could understand like she did. He didn't turn her down – only asked, "How?"

"By learning everything we still want to know about each other." Elsa walked out on the balcony and leaned against the railing. There was no sign of human life anywhere in sight.

As he joined her, Bruce suddenly felt as shy as he had the day they'd first met. "I wouldn't even know where to start."

"I know where I'd like to start," Elsa said uncertainly.

"Where?"

She hesitated but eventually asked, "Would you tell me about the time you saved the world from an evil sorcerer?"

"Did I mention that?" Bruce asked sarcastically.

"Were you joking?"

"Did it sound like it?"

"Possibly."

"Good – oldest trick in the secret-keeping book."

They laughed a bit before Elsa said, "I'd like to hear all about it."

Part of that adventure was painful, but Bruce could recall it all calmly enough, and it had a happy ending. He sighed, wondering where to begin, before saying, "Well, it all started when I was hiding out in a remote village in an eastern country called India. I'd been living there ever since I'd finally learned what you tried to teach me – to control him by letting go of my anger, by always feeling angry. I felt safer than I had in years, but I knew I could still never live a normal life, so I decided to focus on helping others who could. Find a more valuable way to spend my time besides feeling sorry for myself. I was tending to a sick family one night when this little girl showed up, in tears, begging me to come tend to her father. And, like a fool, I went..."

He went on to recount how he'd accepted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "request" to help them find a source of dangerous power, how it had been stolen by a powerful being from another world named Loki, how he and several other soldiers she had met and _hadn't_ met had to ban together to stop his army of monsters, and the vicious battle the other guy helped them fight and win. Despite the questions she asked and the comments she made, he never suspected how enchanted his listener was by his story or the effect that his own bravery, strength, and heroism therein was having on her. If he had, he never would have opened that door.

"That's incredible. You saved the world. You saved my people. You saved us all," Elsa said when he was finished.

"Tony Stark saved us all; I just helped."

"But you saved him! And you beat their leader singlehandedly!"

"That's what they say – it's just a blur to me, like always."

"If it hadn't been for you, they couldn't possibly have defeated him, could they?"

Bruce's only answer was, "I'm glad I could help them."

"Aren't you proud of what you did?"

"Relieved that it worked out so well."

"You should be proud," Elsa insisted. "Joining them was more dangerous for you than anyone else, but you were still brave enough to do it."

Bruce took a deep breath and said, "I could have killed them all," remembering his last seconds of consciousness on the Helicarrier before the other guy went rampaging through the place.

"Then why did you go back?" When he didn't answer, Elsa went on: "Because you knew they were in more danger _without_ you. You knew they needed you, that your power was their greatest protection, their best chance at victory, not a danger, not a threat. You knew you could make a difference, that you were strong enough to defeat what was coming, and you went back knowing you had nothing to fear – from your enemies, or from yourself."

"I didn't think of any of that at the time," Bruce explained. "Just that I couldn't run away because I was afraid of myself."

"And you aren't proud of that?" Elsa asked him with a smirk.

"Pride isn't exactly something I've ever associated with the other guy."

"Give it time – pride in your power comes after losing your fear of your power."

Bruce smiled at her prediction (no doubt based on personal experience) and said, "If I'm less afraid of him, it's only because of what you taught me."

"Then you have no reason to question me now," Elsa said in mock smugness.

"I have nothing to be proud of."

"Look at what you did. Why didn't you tell me what kind of a person I've been dealing with? You're a hero!"

"I'm not a hero," Bruce insisted, still smiling.

"Your story begs to differ. I've never..." She turned away from him and faced the horizon.

Bruce leaned his elbow contentedly against the railing, savoring the first time he caught Elsa stopping herself from blurting something out. "You've never, what, my Queen?"

It was only fair of her to tell the truth, as he always had: "I was just thinking... I've never met a man as brave or as strong as you are. I just... I really admire you. The things you've done."

If his body hadn't been trained not to respond to emotional reactions, Bruce was sure he would have been blushing as furiously as she was. Turning in the same direction, he vowed then and there never to ask Elsa what she was thinking again. "He's the strong one, not me, remember?"

"I'm not so sure about that."

Some instinct told him he shouldn't say it, but he ignored it: "I've, uh... I've never met anyone like you, either." He turned back to her; she was smiling and still blushing but not looking him. He smiled as well at the sight and added, "You'll be a great hero someday – I can tell."

Elsa snickered as if the idea was preposterous. Turning back to him, she said, "I think you have me confused with my sister," before her expression and voice became more solemn. "I don't want to be a hero. I just want to be a good ruler."

"You are."

"Then why is this happening to my kingdom? I've tried so hard to be a good leader, but all this... it makes me wonder if I really have what it takes to be queen. I thought I knew what I was doing, but ever since this started, I've felt more and more helpless. All this power, and I still can't protect my own people. I've failed them. Maybe I'm just not capable of ruling..."

Bruce reached out and clasped her hand in his own, causing her to turn towards him. "If you could help someone as desperate as I was, you can handle anything. Believe me – I know you're a great leader. You showed me that the day we met, so... wise, kind, fearless – everything a great ruler needs to be." He was babbling now – that wasn't a good sign. "So don't talk like that. You haven't failed anyone – this isn't over yet. You can beat this. You're going to win. I..." He'd said too much already, but he couldn't stop. "I have faith in you."

She looked away again when he finished, squeezing his hand in thanks. Neither of them let go as she said, "I'll believe you if you believe me."

"Nice try," he said with an embarrassed laugh.

"Would you like me to thank you or pretend I didn't hear a word you said?"

"Whatever you wish, Your Highness." It was one thing to think so highly of someone; it was another to say it to their face.

"No matter – your conclusions are premature."

"My evidence is solid," he argued.

"You didn't take all the necessary facts into consideration."

"Such as?"

"Such as the icy catastrophe I caused less than twenty-four hours after my reign began." Elsa paused to sigh and shake her head before she continued. "What kind of a start is that?"

Bruce still didn't know all the details about that incident, but he'd gleaned enough to feel confident in saying, "That's in the past. It was an accident that will never happen again."

"If only I could convince everyone else out there who's still afraid of me..."

"Anyone ever given you a reason to be afraid of them?"

"No, no, nothing like that. Some people don't like us, and they're not shy about proclaiming it, but they'd never..."

"You said someone once tried to kill you." They both turned to face each other again after he recalled what she'd mentioned in passing last night. "I'm sorry, I know it's none of my business, but when you hear something like that, you can't help but wonder..."

"I know," Elsa said with a nod.

"I understand if you don't want to talk about it..."

"No, it's okay. It sounds much more critical than it actually was. At the time, it was just another part of the long string of disasters set off by my coronation."

Bruce couldn't see it so lightly. "What happened?"

"Do you want the whole story?"

"If you don't mind telling me, yes. I only know bits and pieces. I remember you said that's when you lost control and your secret got out."

Elsa smiled weakly and released his hand to brush a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. "That's right. My parents had been dead for three years, and no one else knew – not even Anna – and nothing was more important than keeping it that way. The gates had been closed for thirteen years. We lived in complete seclusion – no parties, no balls, no visitors unless absolutely necessary. But I had no choice when I came of age and had to be crowned – I had to give people a proper welcome and entertainment. It was the most agonizing day of my life; I spent every second terrified of slipping up and everyone finding out. Everything went remarkably smoothly, at first, though; I managed to make it through the entire ceremony without losing control for more than a few seconds – not long enough for anyone to see. Once the hardest part was over, I was actually able to relax enough to enjoy the party afterwards – a little. Anna was having a great time, but she disappeared after I reminded her it couldn't always be like that. Then, a few hours later, she ran up to me and announced out of the blue that she was getting married..."

For the next hour or so, Elsa continued to fill in the blanks until Bruce had the whole picture of what had happened then. He heard how Elsa and her sister had started fighting because Juliet had accepted a marriage proposal from Romeo only a few hours after meeting him, how the stress had triggered her powers, how she'd run away immediately without realizing what had happened back in Arendelle. He learned that Anna met Kristoff after she went searching for her sister and recruited him as her guide, only for the two of them to bond on their little road trip more than either of them ever would have guessed. He soon knew all about Anna almost freezing to death from a splinter of ice in her heart (which explained her reaction when she heard Stark's story), about the assault on the ice palace when Elsa fought for her life but was knocked unconscious and captured, and about Prince Hans and his sinister role in the story.

"Loki..." was the closest thing Bruce made to a comment about the youngest prince of the Southern Isles – an envious, charming, cold-blooded, manipulative, glib, selfish, smug master of illusion just like the younger prince of Asgard.

"They probably would have gotten along splendidly," agreed Elsa.

Bruce kept his eyes steadily on the horizon; he had managed to listen to how the prince had tried to kill two innocent, unarmed women with nothing more than a slight tremor in his limbs. That someone could be so heartless, so shameless, such a coward, resort to such despicable means, willing to sacrifice innocent lives just so he could obtain a throne and fame, would have been infuriating enough, but the thought of anyone threatening Elsa or her sweet little sister like that would have been unbearable if he wasn't always angry.

Which was more despicable – the way he'd deceived Anna and rubbed it in her face, or the way he'd driven Elsa to despair as he prepared to stab her in the back? Intellectual questions greatly helped to dilute anger. Bruce also noticed that Elsa had trembled herself at certain moments, like when she recounted how Anna had briefly turned into a frozen statue, but she never sounded nervous or afraid like anyone else, even the other Avengers, would have sounded while telling him something like that; knowing that she wasn't waiting for him to freak out also helped. His voice was hard but calm as, gripping the railing tightly, he asked her, "What happened to him?"

Elsa gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, revealing that she was aware of the effort behind his calm and didn't doubt his ability to control it. "According to our laws, I could have chosen to have him tried and imprisoned or executed here, but I decided not to. I just wanted him gone. I preferred to get him as far away from us as quickly as possible, so I elected to have him sent back to stand trial in his own country instead."

"Is that what you did with the Duke as well?"

"I believed his soldiers' claims that they were acting on his orders, but we had no proof. I couldn't pursue any sort of action against him, but no one could stop me from severing all ties with his kingdom. He was hardly worth any further effort, anyway; he was just a fool."

"What about the prince? What did they do with him?"

"He was found guilty of treason and attempted assassination, disowned, stripped of his title and birthright, and sentenced to life in prison."

At least he hadn't gotten away with it. "Is that where he is now?"

"No..." Bruce tensed up in the split-second before Elsa finished the sentence. "He died six months ago."

"What? How?"

"He was killed in a prison fire," Elsa said with a shudder. "By all accounts, it was devastating. Took them forever to contain it. Very few survivors..."

This unexpected development made her listener even more uneasy. "How did you find out he was killed?"

"The king informed me in a letter," she explained with no hint of agitation or discomfort in her voice. "He thought my sister and I had a right to know his fate."

"Did they find his body?" Elsa turned to him with her eyebrow raised in confusion at his question. "His body – did they ever find it?"

"I... I didn't ask," the somewhat bewildered queen answered. "Even if I had, I doubt they could have told me."

"Bodies burned beyond recognition?" Bruce guessed.

"Most of them, yes, I believe."

"Then how do they know _who_ was killed?"

"They were careful to get a final count of the survivors and the dead. Not everyone could be individually identified, but no one was missing."

"They're absolutely _sure_ every body has been accounted for?"

Elsa nodded. "The block he was kept in was completely destroyed, everything reduced to ash and rubble – the ceiling collapsed, crushing everything beneath it. He was locked inside when it happened. There's no possible way he or anyone else there at the time could have survived."

"But they never found the body?" Bruce repeated.

"No. I guess not," Elsa admitted. Bruce sighed as he turned away from her. "What's wrong?"

Hearing the question put to him like that directly made Bruce question what he was thinking himself. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to shake off the feeling of foreboding. She was right – if that was what had really happened, what he was thinking was impossible. This was ridiculous – why did he let himself get so paranoid?

"What is it?" he heard Elsa ask him, sounding worried.

"Nothing," he answered. "Probably nothing. I'm sorry, it's just... well, we have this saying where I come from about this sort of thing..."

"What?"

He opened his mouth to tell her but, instead, just shook his head again. "Forget it – it's impossible."

"Please don't let this trouble you," Elsa asked him, putting her hand in his again. "It's over. We've all put it behind us. There's no need to dwell on it any longer. There's nothing to worry about."

"I know, I know, I just..." Bruce just realized why he had been so quick to assume the worst-case scenario. "I just can't stand the thought of anyone..."

Elsa showed him mercy this time and spared him from finishing. "Now you know how I've felt for the past two years," she said with a lighthearted smile.

Bruce allowed himself to catch her levity and returned the smile. "I promise I'll make it up to you, my Queen."

"I'll remember that, Dr. Banner."

There it was again – the perfect opportunity to say what they both wanted him to say – and, once again, he let it pass. The reason that had stopped him last night hadn't changed. Perhaps he should remind her of that. "Don't worry about me," he said, just as he had last night, running his fingers along the edge of the device on his wrist. "It's not necessary."

"That's irrelevant. And untrue."

"Okay – I just don't want you to," he said matter-of-factly.

"Fine – I don't want you to let the thought of my enemies bother you, either. Deal?"

Bruce let himself laugh before he answered, "Not a fair trade."

"How do you figure that?"

He was in dangerous territory now, but it would be more dangerous to turn back. "Because there's no way the other guy would ever let me get hurt – it's impossible. Whereas..."

"Are you sure you want to finish that thought?"

"I didn't want to begin it. You started it!" Bruce pleaded, laughing at himself.

"In that case, allow me to finish it for you – I can take care of myself," said Elsa, releasing a small burst of snow from her palm to illustrate her point.

"Already noted and irrelevant," he said, echoing her earlier argument. "I know that better than anyone."

"You have no idea what I can do," Elsa laughed, shooting another blast higher into the air.

"Enlighten me," Bruce said eagerly, looking forward to another display of her powers.''

Elsa shrugged. "If you insist," she said ominously and began rolling her hands over each other, forming what looked like a ball of pulsing light between them.

Bruce watched as the glittering ice took shape. Elsa eventually soon spread her hands apart, and, to his astonishment, what emerged was a white and blue bird, resembling a mockingbird more than anything else in appearance, but about the size of a small falcon, that scattered tiny snowflakes as it flapped its wings, like a phoenix made of ice instead of fire. "Whoah..." He backed up as it flew over to him, around his back and under his arms a few times, before circling around his head and flying back to Elsa, landing on her extended right arm.

Bruce walked up to her and looked closely at her latest creation. "It's alive," he said in disbelief. "It's alive."

Elsa laughed gently at his reaction as she pet her little companion. "As you or I." The snowbird gave a loud call to confirm this. "I won't lie – discovering I could make living snow creatures was a big surprise."

"You don't say?" To Bruce's further surprise, the snowbird suddenly leaped off Elsa's arm and flew right to him. He flinched, but it swerved away from his face and landed on his shoulder.

"Aw, she likes you," Elsa observed.

Bruce raised his right arm, and the bird jumped obediently to his forearm so that he could pull it around and get a better look at it. "I'm honored, but why?" he asked playfully.

"It's not surprising, if she knows you're a man of valor and the heroic things you've done... or the sort of pain you've had to endure... or how much you have in common with me and how much I enjoy your company... or maybe she just thinks you're handsome."

Bruce kept his eyes focused intently on the snowbird as he said, "I doubt it."

"Of course you do," Elsa sighed, stepping closer and stroking the bird's back.

"Well, what would you say if I..."

Elsa smirked at him as if to ask if they were really going to play this game again. "If you what?"

Bruce cleared his throat and mumbled, "If I said..."

"You already did," said a deadpan Elsa.

"I didn't say..."

"Yes?"

He looked into her eyes and repeated, "I didn't say...", but that was as far as he got. He thought, _I didn't say how beautiful you are_. He asked himself why he couldn't say it. What was so dangerous about telling her that? A light burst of wind rippled across the balcony, blowing her braid back like the tail of a comet. He pictured her with hair down again, his gaze drifting down to her neck and shoulders as he did so. His eyes didn't stop but wandered down the rest of her slender frame. She was so lovely. He wanted to tell her so. He wanted...

He felt the weight of the bird lift off his arm. He leaned forward as his freed arm dropped; Elsa moved likewise. They continued leaning closer. He marveled at how her breath didn't turn into clouds in the cold like his did, at her eyes as blue as sapphires, her skin as white as snow... They closed their eyes when their faces were only a few inches apart. This was what he wanted...

It was not denial but the instinct of self-preservation brought about by full admission that made him pull back the way one would back away from the edge of a cliff before going over. He abruptly turned aside as soon as he opened his eyes, before he could see her face again, and said, "It doesn't matter," both to himself and in answer to her last question. He meant it.

"I think it does," she replied.

"Why? What would it lead to?" he asked without looking at her, the danger he was in now all too clear.

She sighed – not in sadness but with resolution – and said firmly, "You're right... it's not practical to..." He turned and looked at her now. She was shaking her head and frowning. "I'm sorry, I should have kept things in perspective."

"We both should."

"We will, from now on."

"We have to."

Having so much in common, it was unsurprising they were in complete agreement on this point. They were momentarily distracted by the snowbird flying back down and landing on the railing right between them. Bruce couldn't explain why, but he somehow got the impression the creature was sad. Elsa sighed and reached out to pet it again. "Good-bye, little one," she said. It turned to face Bruce for a second before rising into the air and flying north into the mountainous wilderness, away from her kingdom and all the rules and responsibilities that went along with it. The two of them simply stared at each other, both agreeing that it would be unwise for two people who didn't have the privilege of concealing their feelings to remain here alone any longer, but neither wanting to be the one to end it.

Elsa assumed the responsibility: "We should be going now, too."

"Right."

They marched back down through the palace and down the staircase outside in silence. This wouldn't do. Friends didn't feel this awkward in each other's presence. "Thank you for the tour, Elsa," Bruce said with a grateful smile.

"My pleasure, Dr. Banner."

"Bruce," he said instantly. It was silly for his friend to address him so formally.

"Bruce," Elsa repeated with her warm smile. "Remember our arrangement."

"Right," he repeated – any other response would have been a sign of weakness. They had both acted foolishly, and they would bear the consequences, not violate their most sacred tenant against concealment by avoiding each other, until they could put it behind them and laugh about it.

"Kristoff and Anna are probably wondering where we are by now," Elsa observed.

"We'd better hurry back, then." The less time Princess Anna had to think about the two of them alone together, the better. "What's the quickest route down?"

"I'm glad you asked." Elsa strolled nonchalantly to a snow-covered slope where there was no path. "We'll go down my favorite way." She stretched her arm out in his direction. "Grab on."

Bruce walked over to her but didn't grab on. "What are you..."

"I do this all the time. Beat the sled in every race. The snow will get us down in no time at all."

Stunned into silence by what she was suggesting, Bruce stared blankly at her until he recovered his voice: "Is that really necessary?"

"Of course not. It would just be fun."

"How much fun?"

"_Too _much fun?" Elsa asked him dejectedly.

As it had been years since he'd been able to fear for his life, no, he was in no danger on that front. No risk of him getting a rush and getting his heart rate up like a normal, vulnerable human being could. No, that wasn't what made him hesitate. "No," he admitted. "At least, not for the reason you're thinking."

"Then there's no harm."

He still held back from joining her. "I don't know."

"I do. I know what I'm doing; it's perfectly safe."

"It's not _my_ safety I'm worried about..."

"I know. I can handle it."

He glanced over at the expanse of snow, ice, and rock that stood between them and their destination. "It's a big leap."

"Does that mean you don't want to take it with me?"

He smirked back at her; this game was getting redundant. "It's not about what I want. It's, can we do it?"

"Only one way to find out."

He folded his arms and looked down at the treacherous slope again. "It looks dangerous..."

"I promise, I won't let you fall. Don't you trust me?"

He smiled at her for a moment before accepting her hand. "I'm not afraid if you aren't."

"Perfect. Hold on tight."

He stepped next to her, grasping her hand more firmly. She gave him one final reassuring smile before raising her free hand and looking intently ahead. He felt the snow shift under his feet and had just enough time to decide that it felt like standing on a skateboard before they shot away from the edge and slid down the mountain on a ramp of snow that Elsa manipulated as they went. The initial jolt threw him forward against her back, so that he was holding on by her shoulder and waist instead of her hand. He could hear her laughing as they glided along, dodging trees and outcroppings of rock, swirling around turns and embankments, spraying a mist of snow and ice in their wake.

It was rather like skiing, except without the breakneck speed; he could tell by their lack of acceleration that Elsa was controlling their descent instead of gravity. Three or four times, the ground dropped away from them, or they went over a chasm, and she would form an ice bridge under their feet to carry them the short space through the air. You could tell by her rapid, expert, confident movements and reflexes that she had done this several times before. Neither of them spoke except for Elsa's occasional warning to, "Duck!" or "Bank left!" Bruce quickly forgot all his worries and reservations and let himself enjoy the ride, laughing along with his guide until he felt them slow down and the ground level out beneath them.

Elsa put the brakes on slowly, but his inertia still threw him forward against her again. She stumbled forward, and he grabbed her upper arms, holding her up. "Sorry – you all right?" he asked, still laughing.

Elsa turned around, brushing her bangs out of her eyes and tossing her braid over her shoulder again. "Never better. And you?"

His right hand was still on her arm. "Likewise. Wow... that was some ride."

"I told you so."

"Glad I let you talk me into it." Part of her bangs continued to sway in the wind. Without thinking, he reached up and tucked it behind her ear. She didn't act surprised or offended at his touch but simply stood still and smiled. He didn't move, either. That hunger he'd felt on the balcony overcame him again, but he was ready for it this time and didn't act on it. He stood there with his eyes locked on hers and his fingers in her silky hair until he was satisfied he could bear it. Once he'd completed that test, he let go and found he could bear that just as well. He shouldn't have let this start in the first place, but at least he knew he could handle it. There was no reason to let it get worse.

Elsa dropped her eyes, but her smile didn't change. "Well, it was fun while it lasted." She turned away from him, and he followed close behind her. Bruce took comfort in her determination. He was glad they were of one mind in this – to do the right thing.

Their first mistake was not speaking as they walked back to town. This gave the genuinely oblivious Elsa, who had never felt this way before, time to wonder what was going on. Something inside her had changed. It was like she was seeing her friend in a whole new light. Why had she tried to kiss him? She had no words or previous reference to describe how he made her feel – a strange mixture of joy, fear, recklessness, and an acute need for caution. What was this? She had never experienced anything like it before. Bruce had, which was why he had the extra burden of telling himself to forget about it, get over it, don't be such an idiot. Unlike Elsa, however, he had the advantage of knowing his companion was royalty, and, thus, the helpful assurance that, no matter how things appeared, she couldn't possibly feel the same way about him. He could tell himself it was his duty to ignore it because she wouldn't welcome such feelings from him. As long as he didn't look at her looking at him... But he did and, against his will, wondered, _What if?_

Perhaps she read his mind again and worried he would try to find out, breaking their vows. In any case, Elsa was the first to realize silence was their enemy. "I hope your friends are doing all right," she said.

"I'm sure they are right now," Bruce said obligingly. "They only left a few hours ago – not long enough for anything to happen to write home about."

"We'll go to the library when we get back and check the map – try to estimate where they are now."

"Should we walk back together?"

"I don't think anyone out here will care," Elsa said with a sigh, as she froze a path through the water before them to save them the trouble of going to the bridge.

She was right. After they crossed the fjord, they met no one but rigid, silent, apathetic passersby as they made their way through the square. A few hostile glares were thrown their way, and Bruce heard a few whispers of "Witch" that would have made anyone else angry on her behalf, but, for the most part, no one seemed to notice them any more than they noticed anything else these days. In fact, it was odd when the thin ranks of cold shoulders and cold glares unexpectedly gave way to crowds running frantically in one direction and the sound of people crying out in dismay and fear. They quickened their pace to join the crowd and ask someone what was going on, but this soon became unnecessary.

Once they turned the corner, they could clearly see, in the distance, one of the turrets of the castle engulfed in a blazing fire.


	8. Fire And Ice

"Anna." Elsa only took a nanosecond to absorb the scene before she ran off as if she'd been shot from a cannon – in her blind panic, scattering a trail of ice around her with every step as she hurried frantically to find her little sister. Bruce was right behind her, his brain dimly registering the sound from his wrist indicating how hard he was forcing his heart to work to support the action. He knew he had a window of safety before he reached the breaking point – as a rule, he never pushed it, but today would have to be the exception.

He reached the castle with his heart pumping 160 beats per minute. As he stopped to slow it down and catch his breath, grateful that his training enabled him to remain as calm in the face of the disaster itself as he had at the sight of an alien leviathan barreling down the street towards him, he heard a familiar voice cry out, "Elsa!" He looked up in time to see the two sisters collide and cling to each other as if for dear life.

"The queen!"

"It's the queen!"

"Your Majesty!"

"Thank goodness you're here, Your Highness!"

"Everyone, calm down!" he heard Elsa call out as he got closer.

"Kristoff's still inside!" Anna exclaimed, her voice trembling with fright.

Flames and smoke were pouring out of every edge of the wooden roof of the tower directly to the right of the main gate. More flames popping up behind the rim of the wall indicated the wooden pillars, balconies, and stairs inside must be burning nicely as well. People were screaming and running in every direction, including guards who seemed to be trying hopelessly to regain order. Milling in and out between them all were stoic figures, standing or strolling by as if they hadn't a care in the world, neither frightened by the raging fire nor concerned for anyone nor trying to help, just watching it as if it was a fascinating chemical reaction or ignoring it. No one appeared to be fighting the blaze. Elsa looked from the fire to the crowd to her sister. "What happened?"

"I don't know! Lars sounded the alarm... it happened so fast... no one knew what to do... we tried to get everyone out..."

"How many are still inside?" Bruce asked.

"Nobody knows – someone said they heard the steps collapse... a beam fell and blocked the main gate... the courtyard was full..."

Elsa put both her hands on her sister's shoulder and told her firmly, "Stay here! Tell everyone to get as far away as they can!" She let her go and started running towards the burning castle again. "Let me through! Everyone move aside!" Anna began to follow her, but she turned half around and called over her shoulder, "No, wait here! I've got this!"

"Elsa, no..." Anna yelled, speeding up. Bruce ran after them.

Elsa didn't slow her pace. "It's too dangerous!"

"No, please, wait..."

"Stay safe, Anna!"

"No, I..." She tripped over the hem of her dress, and Bruce reached her just in time to catch her as she stumbled. She didn't seem to notice he was there but kept trying to reach her sister. "Elsa! Elsa! Kristoff!" She struggled to escape from his grasp, but he saw Elsa throw him a quick glance before she took off without looking back. "Wait!"

Anna, half-mad with panic, kept trying to break away, but Bruce held her back. "Anna, wait, stop..."

"Elsa!"

"Calm down..."

"Elsa!"

"Let her handle this! She can handle this!"

"Kristoff!"

"She'll find him! He'll be okay! She'll find him! You need to stay calm now, all right? For your sister!" These were the first words that seemed. "For your sister," he repeated, trying to force some of his own calm into her as he held her. "Let her do what she needs to do. Please..."

Anna didn't bother to question him or get mad at his interference but simply looked up at him and then threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder as she trembled in fear for those dearest to her. Bruce was stunned by the action only for a moment before, his heroic instincts taking over, he hugged the frightened girl back, whispering that it would be okay.

Elsa pulled the snow from the ground into the air around her as she ran to the castle, causing half the crowd to run quickly out of the way and the other to call out in annoyance, "Watch where you're going! Haven't you done enough damage?" When she reached the foot of the burning tower, she spun around and whipped the large blanket of snow into the air, dropping it on the inferno. She continued to wave her arms at the ground, causing waves of snow to curl into the air as they climbed up the sides of the tower and collapsed on the fire.

Catching her breath, Elsa backed away a few steps and raised her arms slowly, rolling her wrists as she did so, causing a layer of ice to form at the base of the tower and grow up to the fire and over the surrounding walls. At first, it melted before it could reach the top, until she took one long breath and then blew a thick cloud of mist up at the roof. From where he was standing, Bruce watched as her cold finally overpowered the heat, extinguishing the fire until all that was left was the billowing plume of smoke.

Once the flaming turret had been put out, Elsa threw her arms up again, blowing the smoke away with a cold blast of wind. She continued to waft the icy mist along and over the entire wall until it was covered in a thin layer of ice that no fire was left to melt. Bruce felt Anna slump against him in relief and exhaustion as half the crowd began cheering. The captain of the guards ran by them, organizing parties to send in after those trapped inside. Noticing the princess, he turned to her and asked, "Are you all right, my lady?"

"I am now. Just find the prince, please."

"We will," he promised, but at that moment, all three of them turned their heads to the castle as a loud crash indicated that something else had collapsed.

"Everyone, get back!" Elsa cried, right before the bulk of the weakened roof of the tower gave way and fell in on itself. Bruce watched the wood shatter against the rocks beneath it, kicking up a new blast of smoke and dust. It seemed to settle in place at the top of the tower before some of the stones shifted loose, falling to the ground and releasing a trail of debris behind them.

"Kristoff!" Anna cried again, but Bruce held her safely back. He wished he could tell her he knew how she felt. Of course, he was used to feeling as helpless as he did now, watching Elsa run into danger to save her home and her people and him forbidden to get involved, lest he get too excited or stressed out. The crowd was making him nervous enough as it was; those affected looked at Elsa with nothing but pure loathing in their eyes, as if no help she could provide was worth tolerating her presence. How could people so apathetic also be so hostile? What did they hate her so much for? Why were they unable to care about anything yet able to hate so passionately?

The scene grew more confusing and disconcerting the longer it went on. Bruce hadn't been surprised that no one else had seemed to be trying to put out the fire – what means would they have had to fight it? He had, however, been shocked at the people who scowled at the queen as she passed, mumbling insults he was glad he couldn't hear, or who now stood around, ignoring the guards' efforts to get everyone to safety. The captain finally stood still and, looking all around him, yelled in exasperation, "What's the matter with you?! Have you all gone mad? Your friends and family are in there! Help us before someone gets hurt!"

The only response he got was someone scoffing, "Tell that to your precious queen."

"That's her problem – if she's so powerful, let her deal with it."

"Typical of her to ruin our home and then come begging us for help."

"Fine job the witch has done, isn't it?"

"Long live the queen!" someone else yelled sarcastically. "Who knows what doom she'll bring on us next?"

"This is what we get for letting a monster sit on the throne!"

"Let her whole palace burn! See how high and mighty she is then!"

Anna, who had been looking more stunned and indignant throughout the preceding speeches and the echoes of agreement coming from all sides, finally stood up straight and faced the crowd. "What are you talking about? My sister didn't have anything to do with this. This wasn't her fault!"

"Everything is her fault!"

"What's wrong with all of you?!" Anna demanded. "How can you say that? Can't you see she's trying to help?"

"Probably started it in the first place."

"Thinks she can fool us, huh? Play the hero?"

Bruce knew what he would have done in this situation had it been a few years ago. He could almost still hear his commands: _Keep quiet. Don't say anything. Get away. There's nothing you can do. Don't get involved. Don't get angry._ These days, however, sustaining his safe mode of constant internal anger and preventing pressure from building up required asking, "Fool you about what? What has she done to you?"

"She's cursed the land in eternal winter!"

That was an odd complaint coming from one of those who, according to Hawkeye, thrived on cold. "It's too cold for you?" Bruce asked the man.

"Look around you – the entire kingdom is ruined because of her!"

"Her and her black magic!"

"She won't stop until she kills us all!"

"She'll freeze the entire world!"

"My sister is not..." Anna tried to say, but her voice was drowned out.

"Why doesn't she go back to the mountains where she belongs and leave us in peace?!"

"We'll never be safe until she's gone!"

"Hasn't she done enough damage?"

"What damage?" Bruce tried asking again, but, although they continued to complain, no one gave him a direct answer. He didn't know what to make of it. It seemed to him like they knew they were unhappy but didn't know why and didn't ask why – they just directed all their new frustration and dissatisfaction with life at a scapegoat. They were angry not because of the harsh weather but for no reason and didn't want a reason, just something to take it out on. What had made them so blind to reality? Why had they picked Elsa? Why direct all the hatred that was the only emotion they were still capable of feeling at her? Was it really just because her powers made her an easy target? "What has the queen done to you?"

"She's no queen of ours!"

"How dare you!" Anna gasped, furious.

"She won't get away with this!"

"Filthy witch!"

"Evil sorceress!"

"No more witches here!"

"Stop the witch!"

The captain stepped protectively in front of the princess and shouted, "That's enough! Unless you intend to help, everyone, be gone! We have enough trouble here! Clear this area at once!" He motioned to his men, and the soldiers began urging them on their way.

Anna suddenly became a distracted by a new flurry of activity by the gate. "What's going on up there?" It looked like they were bringing people out. "Where's Elsa? Elsa!"

Bruce easily spotted her. Realizing the princess wouldn't be able to stand waiting any longer, and no less eager for answers, he said, "I see her. Come on," and began leading her towards the scene.

They heard Elsa issuing orders before they could make out what was going on: "Get me a doctor immediately! Check the kitchens and the scullery! Give the captain the names of anyone unaccounted for! Use the back and servants' entrances only – no one is allowed in the front courtyard! Have your men check the damage and report back to me in no more than an hour, but be careful! Take your team and search the castle for intruders – no one goes back in until I'm sure it's safe! Tell Erik to arrange lodging for anyone who needs it! Put them down here..."

Anna finally broke her way through the crowd and gasped in horror. "Kristoff!" She ran forward as two men who had been carrying him between them lay him down on a blanket someone had thrown on the ground. He was unconscious, and his head was bleeding severely. "No, no, no..."

"Anna!" Elsa exclaimed as her sister fell on her knees beside her husband.

That was the last thing Bruce was aware of before his mind shifted modes. "Let me through! I'm a doctor, let me through!" This was the type of crisis he could help with. A second later, he was on his knees by the victim, assessing his injuries. Miraculously, he seemed to have mostly minor cuts, scratches, and bruises, except for the head wound, which was full of splinters of wood. He had to remove them and stop the bleeding, but he had no instruments. "Somebody get me a rag – a scarf, a handkerchief, anything!"

A woman standing near him removed her apron and began tearing it into strips, handing him the first one. "Will he be okay?" Anna asked him desperately, but he just shook his head – he'd have time to answer questions later. "I need water!" Elsa formed a tall cube of ice next to him and, with another snap of her wrist, melted the center so that the hollow was full of liquid water.

Heedless of the cold, Bruce threw off his gloves so he could work. As he wet the cloth and began sponging away the blood, he heard Anna tearfully ask, "What happened?"

They were joined by a shadow. Bruce briefly glanced up to see it belonged to an old man, clutching at a long gash in his right arm. He was covered in soot, and his clothes were torn, but it looked like he was dressed like a man who had once given him asylum after an incident in Italy – a bishop. "The balcony above us fell just as we were leading a group of people out," Bruce heard the bishop explain as he went back to work. "A girl tripped, and he pushed us out of the way. Saved our lives."

"Are you all right, Your Grace?" someone asked as the bishop failed to suppress a soft moan of pain. "You need help."

"Don't worry about me. Will he be all right?"

"We need to get him inside," Bruce answered. Kristoff had obviously been indoors when it struck – he wasn't dressed for this; he'd freeze to death if he kept working on him out here. A man threw a coat over him as another man brought a woman dressed in a maid's uniform, groaning in pain, forward in his arms.

"Doctor, I think her leg's been broken," the man said, so fearfully that Bruce guessed he must be her husband.

"Where's the palace physician?" Elsa asked.

"Injured. We're trying to locate the nearest doctor."

"Have someone bring me his instruments," Bruce ordered. "And find us a place indoors where everyone can wait."

"Was any part of the main building damaged?" Elsa asked next.

Not soon enough, Bruce was set up with a staff of servants in a room in the first wing of the castle declared clear and safe, with a makeshift waiting room filling up with patients. It was a crude hospital, but he'd certainly worked under much worse conditions in India, which had made him no stranger to a lack of modern medical luxuries. Elsa left him in charge and instructed the servants, "Do whatever he says." He worried at first how they would react to taking orders from some foreign nobody, but they seemed grateful for his skill and expertise and very willing to help with whatever he needed.

Anna refused to leave her husband's side, so Bruce let her hold his hand while he sewed the gash in his head closed, even though, unsurprisingly, she seemed to find the ordeal more painful than the patient did. She sighed in relief when Bruce said, "There, done. Now you need to..."

"Don't worry about me," Kristoff told him weakly. "I'll be fine. Go help the others."

Bruce rose from the bedside but told Anna firmly, "Don't let him move from here until I've had a chance to thoroughly check him out."

"Right," Anna promised before throwing her arms around him again. "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"

He was used to this kind of embrace and returned it. "No need to thank me, princess. I'm sorry, but I need to go now."

"Yeah, thanks for saving my life," said Kristoff, trying to rise from the bed before Anna sat back down and grabbed his arm.

"I don't think I saved your life..."

"Close enough," Kristoff and Anna said together.

"You're welcome," the doctor replied before moving on.

He didn't see Elsa for several hours while he tended to the injured and she tended to everything else. He was relieved to hear later that there had been no casualties, that everyone was shaken up but accounted for, thanks to Elsa putting out the fire so quickly and to his own efforts afterwards. Between the two of them, tragedy had been averted.

The cause of the fire was still a mystery – no intruders had been found, and no one had actually seen it start. Based on what Bruce was able to piece together from what he'd heard throughout the day, the coachman had been the first to notice something unusual, when he was walking through the courtyard and smelled smoke. He'd followed the scent to the door nearest the tower and gone outside to investigate the other side of the wall when he saw flames peeking out of one of the windows. He'd sounded the alarm immediately, but what had looked like a small fire suddenly grew, spreading all along the inside of the wall surrounding the courtyard, sending many into a quickly-spreading panic.

After the initial alarm, a few brave souls had rushed right in to try to extinguish or contain the blaze. Kristoff had insisted Anna lead the evacuation through the rear and side entrances, which she'd done very smoothly and quickly under the circumstances, while he stayed inside and made sure no one was left behind. He was among those still searching when the beam fell that had caused the worst damage and getting out became a questionable task. Fortunately, the fire hadn't spread to the main building. The castle itself was untouched; all the damage was contained to the courtyard and the exterior wall.

Theories about the origin ranged from someone dropping a torch (but it had been broad daylight) to someone not properly putting out a match (but no one admitted to smoking) to kids playing with matches again (but they all swore they weren't) to the grim but popular theory of sabotage. Several visitors testified that they'd overheard some men arguing in one corner and some kids in another, but they hadn't bothered to listen. No reports of events leading up to the fire got any more unusual than that.

Elsa was standing in the courtyard, surveying the damage, when she was informed of the results of the day's investigations. "I see," was her only comment before dismissing the men. She then turned to go inside, telling the captain, "Double the guard tonight."

"Yes, Your Majesty," he replied with a bow as she walked past him.

Without stopping or turning around, she added in a firm voice, "And lock the gates."

There was a pause before the captain asked, "For how long, Your Majesty?"

She stopped walking, but her voice never wavered as she answered, "Until we find who's responsible."

"It might have been an accident, ma'am."

"I hope so," the queen sighed, turning half-around. "But until we know for sure, no one is to enter without necessary business or without being summoned. I won't take chances with anyone's safety – until we determine how this happened and can guarantee it won't happen again, the gates will remain closed."

The captain bowed again and said, "Understood, my Queen," as she turned and walked away.

He watched her go until the doors closed behind her. One of the soldiers stepped up next to him and sighed. "The princess will be devastated when she hears the news."

"No more than the queen," the captain observed, "but she's right – it must be done." Following her example, he shook his head and went to deliver his orders for the night watch, his eyes narrowed in determination.

It was long after midnight when Bruce, half-dozing in a chair by a bedside, felt a hand fall on his shoulder. He opened his eyes with a startled gasp and turned around to find Elsa looking down at him. "It's all right, it's just me. How are things going here?" she asked.

He rose to his feet and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "Under the circumstances, couldn't be better. Things went a lot faster once Dr. Nielsen arrived from town. He's bandaging our last burn victim in the other room." He noticed the concerned way she looked down at the little girl sleeping in the bed. "She'll be okay – just sprained her ankle. Her mother said she and her brother were climbing on your frozen fountain and slipped when the panic struck."

"How's Kristoff?"

"No concussion. He'll be sore for a while, but he'll recover. How's your sister holding up?"

"Honorably – she's been a big help today, helping me conduct things. I haven't seen her for a few hours. Has she been back at all?"

"No. I haven't seen either of them since they left hours ago, but she seemed fine once she knew her husband was all right."

"And Bishop Thoresen?"

"Bad cut but nothing serious. He left as soon as I finished – said he didn't want to take up room."

"Dr. Holstein? I heard he was injured."

"Just a broken arm. Wanted to help but not much he could do. He'll probably need to keep his arm in a sling for six weeks, but after that, he should be fine."

Elsa continued to ask after the rest of her friends, staff, and visitors until Bruce had no more information to give her. The other doctor returned as they were finishing up, and she gestured for Bruce to join her in the hallway. Dr. Nielsen, thinking she was ordering him to go get some rest, bowed to the queen and told him, "Go ahead – I'll take over from here."

"Thank you," said Bruce, clasping his hand before following Elsa, closing the door softly behind them.

The halls, normally well-lit until everyone was in bed, were almost dark tonight, the moon outside the window giving more light than the few live lamps. The darkness fit the mood, though, as Elsa said, "I can't thank you enough for your help today."

"I was just doing my job," Bruce said sincerely.

"I don't know what we would have done without you."

"You could have found someone else..."

"Not quickly enough. I owe you my people's lives. Who knows how many you saved today?"

"I didn't save anyone – you did," Bruce reminded her. "Who knows what that fire would've destroyed if you hadn't stopped it?"

"If it hadn't been for you, what I did wouldn't have mattered."

"If it hadn't been for _you_, there might not have been anyone to save."

Elsa looked away from him and said gravely, "If it hadn't been for me, this wouldn't have happened."

Bruce looked away as well and asked, reluctantly, "You think this was about you?"

"Do you think I'm wrong?" He didn't try to deny it. "The grumblings, the complaints are nothing new, but this is the first action anyone's taken against me."

Keeping his focus on the analytical side of the problem to keep the emotional side at bay, Bruce asked her, "Why target the courtyard? Why not the building? And why make their move when you weren't here?"

"Sending a message – they didn't want me dead, they wanted me to see my family and my people in danger." The speed of her answer showed she'd thought it all through hours ago. "They targeted the place where we and our friends gather to celebrate and have fun, not where we live. They want to make it clear those times are over."

"Are they?"

"For the time being. I'm not letting them hurt anyone else." She stopped and looked out a long window at the kingdom she ruled. "How could I have let this happen?"

She was trying to hide it, but Bruce recognized the tone of voice too well. "You know it's not your fault."

She didn't show any surprise that he had read her mind. "They attacked us because of me. Because of what I am."

"And they failed because of you. You stopped their plan in its tracks. Nobody else here could have done that."

"I never should have allowed it to go that far. It's my responsibility to protect Arendelle, and I've failed."

"If you did, so did I."

Elsa turned to him, but he didn't look at her. "What?"

"I was supposed to stay behind to prevent something like this," said Bruce, finally voicing the thought he'd been using to feed his constant anger for the past few hours.

"They left you behind to look for clues, not to protect me."

He shook his head. "Good, because I can't protect anyone." _He_ wasn't the strong one...

"But you have. Look at what you did today."

He shook his head again. Why did everyone act like what he did as a doctor was such a big deal? "That was nothing."

"It meant a lot to me, and Anna, and Kristoff, and everyone else you helped. You were... our hero today."

He had to smile, but only because of who was saying it, as he turned to her and said, "No. You were."

He was glad Elsa didn't try to deny it. She smiled back at him and asked, "Is this what you do every day back home? Saving people like you saved us today?"

If she insisted on believing that about him, it was easier to let it go than to argue with her. "_We_ saved them today," Bruce reminded her, taking her hand and squeezing it for emphasis, trying to convey how impressed he'd been by seeing her in action today.

Elsa looked shyly down and then back at up at him – she got the message. "We make a great team, don't we?"

Was it more dangerous to answer or not to answer? Concealing anything was dangerous for him, which left him no choice but to admit, "Yeah. We do."

Elsa stared at him so intently that he feared she was about to try to kiss him again. If she started it, he knew he wouldn't be able to disobey her. He didn't move, and, to his relief, she only leaned forward a fraction of an inch before releasing his hand and backing away, wrapping her arms around herself. "You should go get some rest – you look exhausted," she said.

"So should you. You've had a long day."

Elsa shook her head and turned away from the window. "No, I need to find Anna. I want her to hear the news from me. She'll be heartbroken, but it has to be done."

"She wants you safe, too. She'll understand," Bruce assured her.

"I hope so. She's probably with Kristoff – do you know where they took him?"

"They left after a guard came and told them their rooms had been checked and it was safe to go back to them. Her maid came to help us about an hour ago. Said the princess sent her down because she wouldn't need her anymore tonight."

Elsa frowned. "Well, if she managed to get to sleep, I don't want to wake her up. I guess it will have to wait until morning. We should go to bed, too... I mean, we should... you should... and I should go..."

_Don't laugh, don't react_. Pretending that meant nothing when he translated it to his own language, and trying not to think of what Tony Stark would have said had he heard that, Bruce calmly stepped away from the window and said, "We should try to get some sleep."

Taking his cue, Elsa quickly cast off her uncharacteristic fluster and said, gratefully, "Yes, we should. Thank you again for your services today."

"It was my honor to be of service to you." Determined to part from her in perfect composure, Bruce made himself take her left hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed it softly. "Good night, my Queen."

"Good night, Bruce." He would have left then, but he couldn't until she released his hand, so they stood there smiling at each other until she let go. He bowed, she nodded, and they both turned, still smiling, and walked away in opposite directions, still smiling.

Elsa dismissed her maid as soon as she reached her chambers. The girl, understanding why the queen would want to be alone after the events of today, bowed courteously and left her alone with her wildly confusing thoughts, which she seized as a welcome distraction from thoughts of the day's catastrophe. She'd go crazy if she dwelt on that all night... but should she dwell on thoughts of Bruce? Why shouldn't she? She was so grateful for his help today, so glad he had been there to take care of her people. Was that why thinking about him and just knowing he was nearby made her feel so happy? As soon as she thought about her own happiness, her spirits inexplicably fell, making her feel like she wanted to scream or cry.

Elsa leaned against the door she had just closed behind her maid and sighed. She had been sure her confused feelings about Bruce would have resolved if she ever she saw him again, but it felt like they were getting worse. What was wrong with her? She couldn't afford to be so confused, not now, not after what just happened. She shook her head, straightened up, and went to her bedroom, determined to put such questions aside until their real problems were solved. She had a friend and a valuable ally – why couldn't she let it go at that?

Her thoughts continued to alternate between the fire and the doctor as she prepared for bed, swapping her ice outfit for a beautiful but mundane silk nightgown that couldn't melt while she slept. If she had never felt this way about anyone except him, the question was, why? Of course, she knew how he was different from anyone she'd ever met, and why their friendship was different from any other relationships she'd had, but what did that mean?

Her memory answered by quoting Anna's theory on the subject. Could this really be...? The idea was completely surreal to her. She'd grown up telling herself that she would never know a man's love, shoved the possibility out of her mind until it became as implausible for her as the thought of flying or breathing underwater. Love, courtship, marriage, children – none of that was for her. None of it would ever be part of her life. It was too dangerous. She would live alone with her curse forever. She'd been mercifully released from that burden a few years ago but too recently to make up for lost time. Her development in that area had been severely stunted; she had never learned how these things worked like other girls did in their youth (it had seemed easier not to know what she would be missing out on). She was well-educated in most fields, but in matters of the heart, she was as knowledgeable as an innocent little schoolgirl. Her instincts had told her that Anna's initial approach with Hans wasn't right, but this wasn't as clear to her.

How did this work? She was willing to admit she found him attractive, but what about the rest? What did attraction plus sympathy plus friendship plus sorrow for the pain he'd suffered plus admiration plus gratitude add up to? She wasn't concealing anything – she honestly didn't know. Did he know? How did he feel about her?

She tried to tell herself it didn't matter anyway. Hadn't she promised him she would keep things in perspective? He wasn't the type of man that she should be asking these questions about, that her situation allowed her to ask these questions about. The issue should never have come up. But it had, pointless or not, and ignoring it would be reverting back to her old self, from before she'd learned the dangers of concealment. Now that she'd started down this road, she couldn't turn back, even if there would be nothing for her at the end.

One floor and several rooms away, Bruce, likewise forbidden to conceal anything from himself any longer, was mentally taking a circuitous route to the same road. As he'd walked back to his room, his mind had been safely focused on the mystery of the fire. How had they done it? What would be next? Whatever happened, he vowed he wouldn't let anything happen to Elsa or her family or her people.

_Why is that so important?_ Because it was his duty. He'd already failed her once. He didn't deserve all the respect she'd shown him today. And yet, it had felt good to learn that she thought as highly of him as he thought of her.

_Is that it?_ Yes, he admitted he cared about and respected her, he accepted how much she respected him, but how arrogant would it have been to presume anything more? He reminded himself what he was and what she was. His safety lay in the difference.

_What does she want from you then?_ A friend and a confidant.

_What about you? What do __**you**__ want?_ He didn't bother to answer that – there was no point. Shouldn't the human psyche have some defense mechanism that prevented it from wanting the impossible? He was sure he did, at least – it had been a long time since he was guilty of that weakness. He involuntarily flashed back to the last time he had nearly succumbed...

"_It's okay, I want to..."_ So had he, but...

"_I don't every time get what I want."_

No. No, he didn't. What he wanted didn't matter. The fact that he and Queen Elsa – the most powerful, beautiful woman he'd ever known – shared such a special bond didn't matter. He would never be free to go down that road with her. He would never be anything but a monster. It was hopeless.

_Just let it go, Banner. Let it go._

* * *

"It was a rash move."

Hans shrugged nonchalantly, his satisfied grin unchanged. "The results beg to differ."

Far away in her ice palace, he watched the Snow Queen pace around the Mirror of Reason, her arms behind her back, her eyes knit in concentration. By watching him through her Mirror, and watching her through his piece of it, they could each hear what the other was saying and respond knowing their reply would be heard. It was a rather awkward way of communicating, at first, but he'd gotten used to it over the past two months. "It's too soon," she said in her flat, even, regal voice. "If you waited until we had more of the soldiers under our control, you could have done much more damage."

"I couldn't agree more," Hans replied, "but since you refuse to nip our potential problem in the bud, I couldn't afford to waste any more time."

The Snow Queen's tone didn't waver a fraction as she asked, "How many times do I have to tell you those two pose no threat?"

"Why take a chance?" Hans asked in reply, no less calm, if more annoyed. "All it would take is one big storm, one quick avalanche, and you could eliminate them right now."

"As I've tried to tell you, it wouldn't work. You don't know them – I do. I've seen what they can do."

Hans remembered perfectly what she had told him about their weapons and powers – hence his concern. "Yet you say they aren't a threat."

"Not to me. I wouldn't recommend you challenging them to combat."

Hans knew he showed no reaction to that, but he wasn't surprised at the half-smirk she made at the few extra seconds it took before he spoke again: "Then taking care of the problem should be no trouble for you."

"I'm not going to waste my energy on a solution that might not work to a problem that doesn't need fixing. Forget about those two. If they had stayed in Arendelle, I agree they might have been able to make things difficult for us, but now that they've left, we have nothing to worry about."

"If that's your reasoning, I suppose it hasn't occurred to you that, as long as they're alive, there's a chance they will return?"

The snow Queen made a sound that might have been her very mild version of an exasperated sigh. "Very well, if you're so worried, I promise, it will no longer be an issue tomorrow."

Hans looked out his room's tiny window, seeing the first rays of dawn already emerging over the horizon. Tomorrow would be here any minute. "I applaud your confidence. Pardon my curiosity, but what are exactly are you planning to do to accomplish this?"

"Nothing. I intend to let someone else take care of them for us."

Hans furrowed his brow and looked aside, trying to calculate where the two strangers would be by now and what she could be referring to. One part of the legend he'd heard fit, but it didn't exactly reassure him. "Yes, that worked out so well last time," he said sarcastically.

"It will buy us some time. I believe that was your primary concern."

"Why don't you just bury them and buy us all the time we want?"

The Snow Queen smiled as she replied, "You're not thinking this all the way through. They would be far more useful to us alive than dead."

"_If_ you could freeze them, which, as I recall, you apparently can't."

"Not at the time I tried," the Snow Queen confessed, untroubled. "I admit, I miscalculated. He seemed to have a frozen heart already that should have attracted the ice to him like a magnet to iron, but, apparently, he has the power that grants humans resistance to it."

"Then your hope is futile."

"I said 'resistance,' not 'immunity.' No human remains in the same mindset all the time. I'll just have to strike when his mind and heart aren't protected by the thoughts that protected him that night. Unlike the other one, he can't keep that armor up forever, especially if he doesn't know he needs to."

Hans believed her explanation, but he still doubted her approach. "Would today possibly offer an opportune time to try again?"

"Perhaps, but if, as you claim, our priority is time, let's keep them busy for a few weeks first."

Hans would be perfectly satisfied if only she could really guarantee that, but he didn't see how. "Weeks? If they're really as powerful as you say, this stunt might buy us a few minutes."

"A few minutes are all we'll need."

Hans sighed in defeat – nothing could break her stubbornness. But wallowing in anxiety was not in his nature. He put his worries about the two strangers aside for now; he would return to that issue if and when this plan of hers failed. Until then, he would focus on the things he was in a position to control. "Very well – take care of them as you see fit, but don't forget I warned you."

"I'll do that. I believe in proceeding with caution – something I suggest you do more of on your end."

He scowled at the accusation, as it was patently untrue. "No one works more cautiously than I."

"Until today. You lost your patience."

"It worked," Hans said dismissively.

"Not the way you planned."

"Not to the extent I hoped," he admitted, "but I'm still satisfied."

"You've made things more difficult."

"If I have, I'll work it out. Let me handle things here. I've got everything under control."

"If that were true, you would pay more attention to your new guest."

"What?" Hans laughed, amazed that she considered that significant enough to bring up. "The queen's latest charity case? Haven't we got more important things to..."

"He is in a much better position to expose us than his companions are."

"His companions are the only ones with the power to stop us," Hans reminded her. "He's the one they could afford to leave behind – how dangerous could he be?" He had to laugh again as he remembered the shy, nervous, gentle, quiet, self-effacing man he'd seen last night while he'd been watching the queen. "The other two may be warriors, but he's just another one of the myriad peasants the queen and princess have taken in in the past. Not a threat."

"Not in the way you're thinking, but if the throne is still your goal, I suggest you nip this potential problem in the bud," advised the Snow Queen, echoing his earlier complaint.

Her insinuation was clear, however ludicrous. "Interesting theory," Hans observed, suddenly suspicious. Was she just making an annoying joke because she was angry that he had argued with her, or was she trying to distract him? He had never fully trusted her, but he had apparently overestimated her intelligence if she thought she could fool him. "Based on...?" he pressed.

The Snow Queen didn't reply but instead asked, "Did you watch them at all today?" Because she had no basis for it. That confirmed his own theory – for a reason he was yet to learn, she was trying to distract him.

"I'm afraid not," Hans said sarcastically, to let her know how unnecessary he knew it was. "I meant to, but I was too busy getting our revenge on Queen Elsa."

"How, by giving her the perfect opportunity to rush in and save the day?"

His intent had been to show all those still supporting Elsa that no one was safe with her and get those whom the ice splinters couldn't freeze to abandon their queen out of either fear or frustration, but they needn't go into that right now. "By taking away one of the things she loves the most. It was time to tell her we're here, and there's no escape. That no place is safe from us. We can get to her anywhere. And anyone she cares about."

"You risked discovery to crash a party."

"I don't take risks, I make plans. The two sentries who guard the gate have both been frozen," he explained. He had waited patiently for just such an opportunity. Today was the first time since his return that he'd ventured sneaking into the courtyard. The guards' cooperation had made it easy – as long as he kept his hood up and didn't act suspicious (which Princess Anna could testify he was a master at), no one recognized him as the prince most of them had no doubt heard of but few had seen years ago and all knew had died six months ago. "There was hardly any danger of exposure."

"And hardly any profit," she pointed out.

Hans shrugged again. "So the queen's latest admirer was able to save everyone's lives. It was still an effective gesture. He didn't do any real harm, except for the prince..." He cringed as he remembered how close he had come to getting his revenge on the peasant who had won everything that should have been his.

"You didn't honestly expect to get rid of him so easily just by..."

"Of course not!" he snapped, the speed of his answer giving away the lie. He reverted back to the previous subject. "At least I know how to factor the doctor into my plans from now on. Anything else about him I should know about?"

As he expected, the Snow Queen snickered in the direction of her Mirror – obviously to put on a show of confident, lofty nonchalance after he'd seen through her attempted trick. "Him? No, he's harmless." He gave her credit for being wise enough to admit it to him.

"Very well – I'll keep my eye on those who aren't. If you'll excuse me..." With that, he lay the mirror face down on the table. Before he picked it up again, he pulled his cloak more tightly around his shoulders. This inn was noticeably colder than the one he'd previously hidden in, but after that stranger had almost discovered his hiding place, he'd been forced to move immediately. Fortunately, more than one innkeeper had been frozen and was more than willing to help the man who understood how dangerous the queen was and had a plan to save them all from her.

When he picked the mirror back up, all Hans could see in it was his own reflection. But not for long. The strangers would no doubt want to make an early start, and he wanted to keep a close eye on them. What were they up to? What didn't the Snow Queen want him to see? Just because she'd failed to distract him didn't mean it was safe to grow complacent. He'd been looking forward to seeing how the queen and princess suffered through their first day of locked gates, but there would be plenty of time to savor their misery later. For now, these powerful new enemies had to be his priority. "Show me the two..." What had the Snow Queen said they called themselves? "... Avengers."

* * *

"Ugh... how did Cap put up with this for seventy years?" Tony wondered aloud as he scanned the miles of snow, ice, more snow, and more ice surrounding him for miles. He flew around in one quick circle as he waited for his partner riding down below to catch up with him before launching forward again at a much slower speed than he was used to. "Some adventure..." Yesterday had been completely uneventful, and today was looking no better. Sure, it meant they'd made good progress, but Tony Stark wasn't exactly looking forward to another straight day of nothing but flying and stopping to rest or eat before hitting the road again. It felt like the seamless white landscape was laughing at their feeble attempts to find something in its unbroken blankness. It wasn't even snowing or windy, just completely deserted, still, and frozen. "You know, when this is over, we should take a vacation somewhere more tropical, like the ice planet of Hoth."

"If we can't stop whatever's causing this, we'll be living on it soon," Hawkeye's voice said in his ear. Tony looked down and saw him turn his mount right to go around a hill or large mound of snow up ahead.

"Come on – if we can stop a Frost Giant, how hard can it be to stop a giant frost?" The Avengers' most extreme introvert was fighting the unexpected urge to grin when their most extreme extrovert added, "As long as we don't die of boredom first. I mean, come on, almost twenty-four hours in a magical land without running into a single threat? What a rip off!"

Hawkeye's grin instantly disappeared as he rolled his eyes. "You know you should never say stuff like that, Stark."

"Oh, you mean because..." Tony was distracted by an alert from one of his sensors. He only had to wait half a second to spot what it had detected below: the mound of snow unfolding to reveal the head, body, and limbs of a massive, vaguely humanoid creature (the-Pillsbury-Doughboy-monster-on-steroids-and-with-rabies was Tony's assessment), bringing both the heroes to an abrupt halt. It stood up straight and stomped a few times in their direction before stopping, the empty blue sockets in its head darting up and down between them as it growling menacingly – clearly, they were not welcome. Tony eventually broke the tense silence that followed: "... _that_ might happen." At the sound, the monster looked up and swatted at him with one of its icy claws like he was a fly, so fast that Tony just barely managed to rise and dodge the attack. "Whoah!" He could easily stay out of its reach, but he couldn't exactly fly off with Agent Barton stuck fighting on the ground.

The creature stomped towards them again, swinging its thick arms. Hawkeye dismounted and rolled away as it took a swipe at him, sending the two reindeer running in fright, but there was no time to worry about that; now that he had no chance of outrunning the thing, the only option was to fight. He came up on one knee with an arrow already on the string and fired, replacing it before he got to his feet. He'd used an ordinary arrow to test what would happen; as he expected, it passed right through the creature's shoulder, trailing a stream of snowflakes behind it on its way to the ground but causing absolutely no damage.

Tony steadied himself in the air and fired one strong double-blast. The force of impact made the creature stumble back a few steps, but it got right back up, unharmed and growling louder and angrier than ever. Tony flew out of its reach as it lunged towards them again, just before Hawkeye fired his explosive arrow at its head. It detonated on impact, but the hole it left almost instantly closed, the snow resuming its original shape as if molded by an invisible hand. The creature kept coming at him, but he shoulder-rolled to the side out of the way right as Tony fired another blast at its back. It fell forward on its face, its form melding into the snow around it, but neither of the men thought it would be down for long.

"JARVIS," Tony said as the monster came after them again and Hawkeye fired harmlessly at each of its limbs, trying to find a weakness, "what can you tell me about this thing?"

"Its entire structure appears to be made of snow," the robotic sidekick answered as his master fired a stream of missiles at his attacker. "Scans detect no discernible skeleton or anatomy or nervous system."

"Great – how do you fight magic snow?" Tony asked, dodging one swipe after another as he tried to get a closer look.

Hawkeye ducked and shot a flaming arrow into the monster's arm. The fire melted a small area of snow before fizzling out. "I knew that would be too easy," the archer said to himself as he backed away. Deciding to try the opposite approach, he fired his next arrow at the creature's right knee, which became encased in ice upon impact as the freezing agent activated. Unbothered, the creature kept walking, only a little stiffly, the ice crumbling away a little with each step until it was able to move as freely as ever. Apparently, neither fire nor ice beat snow.

"JARVIS, boost the flares to maximum power!" Once the stats on the screen confirmed his order had been carried out, Tony dived at the monster with his suit now more fireball than armor. This amount of flame melted enough of its core to bring it fairly down. The way now clear, Hawkeye readied another arrow and ran ahead, Stark flying above him. The creature recovered and gave chase, but Tony shot a wide blast at the ground in front of it, kicking up a huge spray of snow. Naturally, this didn't hold it off for long, but it allowed the heroes to get that much farther away from it. Tony managed to fire a missile right in its mouth just as Hawkeye fired an explosive arrow into its chest, but it kept coming.

Hawkeye turned and tried to look for the reindeer or some part of his environment he could use to his advantage. The ground ahead sloped gently downward, but he could see nothing below except a strange strip cutting across the plain to the right, of a color and texture slightly different from the snow around it; he quickly realized it was a frozen river. A beam of red light around the corner of his eye caused him to turn back, where he saw Stark firing a continuous laser at the beast, as if he were trying to melt it. The archer loaded two flaming arrows on the bow he now turned sideways before circling around to the left to get a better angle for the shot. The creature, however, suddenly rallied itself and, regardless of its half-melted face, charged right after him in a rage. Tony zoomed after it and knocked it as hard he could to the side.

Hawkeye darted around the fallen monster, his attention divided between waiting for it to rise up and resume its assault and listening to the radio in his ear: "Unless you have a rock salt arrow in there, we gotta get out of here!"

"Might have something better," the archer replied, rapidly firing a series of arrows at the ground three at a time, setting off a chain of explosions that their opponent had no easy time getting through. "See that river down there about fifty yards to the northwest?"

Tony hadn't time to look before, but he did now, and he quickly deduced what Barton must have in mind. "That's the oldest trick in the book."

"You got a better idea?"

"If you fall in, don't blame me. Brace yourself!" With that, Tony swooped down, lifted the archer into the air, and flew towards the river. The two men landed on the opposite bank and turned, their weapons at the ready, only to find that the creature wasn't following them but standing where they'd left it, growling threateningly after them.

"Get ready," said Hawkeye, never taking his gaze off the monster. "As soon as it reaches the center, melt the ice under it."

"One giant ice cube to go, extra frozen, hold the snow, coming right up," Tony replied. He never got the chance to try their instant freeze plan, however, because the demon snowman appeared to have lost interest in trying to catch them. It didn't follow them, nor did it wander away; it just stood back there staring down at them.

"What, did we reach some magic border it can't cross?" Tony asked, bewildered.

"I don't think so." It wasn't acting frustrated or enraged like you would expect had he been forced to give up the chase – more like there was no reason to chase them any longer. The way it looked at them struck Hawkeye as vaguely familiar. He gingerly put one foot down on the ice in front of him; when he was sure it could support his weight, he walked slowly across, never taking his aim off the creature. Stark flew up and hovered a few feet above the ground on the other bank.

Once they were both back over the river, the creature grew more agitated. The farther they moved in its direction, the more upset it got until it finally roared (covering Tony's armor in snow as it did so) and ran at them, as eager to fight as it was in the beginning.

Hawkeye saw Stark prep his arms for another blast and yelled, "Wait!"

Stark didn't fire, but he didn't power down his gauntlets, either. "Why?"

"Back up – see what it does." Keeping his eyes on the monster and his bow raised and ready to fire, Hawkeye stepped backwards towards the river. Tony floated after him, not sure what he was getting at. The creature roared at them once more but then retreated back the few steps it had come. Its behavior now reminded Tony of something, as well. He flew towards it again, circling wide around it so that it had no chance of catching him. As soon as he passed it, the snowman dashed after him, running through the snow like a fish swims through water, except much faster, howling and flailing its bulky arms about in pure rage. Tony let it almost catch up to him before he rocketed upwards and glided back to the near bank of the river, landing beside Hawkeye.

"It's not trying to kill us," the sharp-eyed archer concluded. "It's trying to keep us from passing. It doesn't want us to go that way."

"So, either this is the habitat for a very territorial species of snowman Elsa forgot to mention, or..."

"... there's something over there someone doesn't want us to find." Satisfied that they were safe as long as they didn't move in that direction, Hawkeye resheathed his arrow, shouldered his bow, and pulled his tablet out from inside his jacket. "The polar vortex isn't coming from that direction," he said as he looked at the screen.

"Then what is someone so eager to hide?" Intending to find out, Tony shot straight up until he was as high as a low-flying plane and scanned the area as far as he could, pulling up radar and satellite data on the screen. "JARVIS, anything unusual around here?"

"Satellite scans show nothing but snow for at least a sixty mile radius, sir – no sign of plant, animal, or human life within that perimeter."

"Maybe not on the surface – what about underground?"

"Geothermal activity and heat readings are all normal – no sign of any activity, electrical power, or unnatural structures under the snow or ground."

"Any sign of _recent_ human activity?"

"Negative within this vicinity, sir."

"No way finding it would be that simple, Stark," Hawkeye chimed in over the radio.

"Then we gotta get rid of this thing. We're close to something – something important, or they wouldn't go to so much trouble to guard it. Could be part of what's causing this polar vortex."

Hawkeye swept his gaze over the entire horizon, looking for a way to either stop or avoid the beast without telling Stark to go look without him, when he said, "I know, but how..." only to stop as his thoughts detoured. Aside from the monster, there was nothing in the area to indicate there was anything special or even different anywhere nearby; had it not been for the attack, they would have kept on going north towards the source of the polar vortex, never knowing someone was trying to guard something to the northeast of here at all. They would have passed, and the secret would have been perfectly safe. If you wanted to hide or protect something, you concealed it where no one would notice it, not wave a flag that said HERE IT IS, SO DON'T GO THIS WAY! to people who never would have known it was there in the first place. The monster or whoever had created it hadn't kept them from finding something – it had alerted them that there was something to find. "Hold on – something's not right here." The set-up was too obvious. "That's just what they want us to do."

Tony realized that his first instinct upon finding out the creature was only trying to chase them away had been to look for a way to go in that very direction. "That's not a guard, that's bait," he said.

Hawkeye grinned as the true picture developed. The both reached the conclusion at the same time: "It's a trap."

"Someone wants us to go that way," Hawkeye added.

"Why? So we walk into something they have rigged to kill us?" Tony asked as he landed again.

"Your buddy said there's nothing over there."

"Right..." And if they weren't being drawn _to_ something... "I can't believe I almost fell for that," Tony said with a chuckle.

"What?"

"They weren't trying to lure us in," Tony explained, as he pointed in the direction the snowman was guarding. "They were trying to lure us away." And he pointed in the opposite direction across the river. "Make us think that they want us to stay away so we go that way instead of going the way they really don't want us to go."

"Well, they get points for originality," Hawkeye conceded. A rustle of movement from the north caught his eye. He reached to his side for an arrow before the shapes of figures approaching registered as those of reindeer.

"Thanks for joining us again, guys," Stark told them as they walked closer.

"Good – I wasn't looking forward to walking or being dragged the rest of the way." Hawkeye wasn't surprised that, instead of running off scared, they'd returned with what looked like most of the supplies still on their backs. He'd first gotten the impression two days ago that the reindeer around here, or at least in Arendelle, were different from other species; their eyes and faces seemed to display the emotion and reasoning of sentient, if mute, beings, who appeared well aware of what the humans around them were up to and weren't shy about showing their approval or disapproval. He took the reins of one and swung his leg over its back. Once he was in the seat, he studied the display on the tablet again. "That could be a trick, too, you know – keep us away from the source."

"They could've done that yesterday – why wait until we got here?" Stark argued. "This was where he was waiting for us – why?"

"This river _is_ the first landmark we've come across since we left Arendelle," Hawkeye admitted.

"Let's see what's on the other side before we go on," Tony suggested.

Hawkeye decided the risks of not investigating outweighed the risks of a few hours' delay and led the reindeer over the icy river. They inched their way across the slippery surface but, once they had the snow-covered earth under their hooves again, broke into a run. "Race ya'," Stark laughed before flying ahead. The reindeer sped up, as if sensing and accepting the challenge. Hawkeye let them have their fun while he kept an eye out for anything suspicious.

Stark, however, was the first one to spot something: "Got a curve of the river coming up ahead." Hawkeye veered his mount to the right away from the ice. They were soon traveling parallel with the river, which apparently turned west at some point beyond where they had crossed it. Tony had just noticed a branch farther downstream that came from the direction of Arendelle and was trying to trace if it went all the way back there when the sounds of crashing and rumbling like a series of small avalanches caused them both to stop and whip their heads around. Sure enough, their new friend was running after them, still a good distance behind, but obviously not for long.

"Well, at least it confirms we went the right way," said Tony, analyzing the area from his place in the sky.

"Which means now is when he's _really_ going to try to stop us," Hawkeye said as threw open the flap of a saddlebag and pulled out a crossbow; since none of his trick arrows worked on this thing, he might as well use a weapon that could leave one of his hands free.

"Boy, I'd love to know how they built this thing," Tony said while he tried to think of a weapon he hadn't tried on the indestructible snowman yet.

Hawkeye didn't comment on that but simply said, "Original plan still applies. Let's finish this now."

"Get out of here. I'll take care of it."

Hawkeye didn't argue with the guy protected by a flying suit of armor but led his mount and its companion across the river again and ran a few more yards downstream while Stark hovered ten feet above the ice. It wasn't long before their pursuer caught up. Tony fired a small blast in the snow to get its attention. "Come and get me, Frosty," he said to himself, right before it dashed into the middle of the river and ran towards him.

Hawkeye raised his crossbow, a bolt locked and loaded, his finger on the trigger. Tony raised his right arm and fired the laser from his wrist at the frozen surface of the river below him, melting the ice until a flat chunk was bobbing in the water underneath. As soon as the monster reached the spot, Hawkeye shot the bolt at its left leg, causing it to stumble as Stark melted the ice under it completely. This ice did not magically reform, and the creature sank into the frigid water. Hawkeye prepared for another shot, but it wasn't necessary; the monster floated back to the surface, no longer a moving mass of snow but a stiff, frozen, solid statue of ice.

Tony flew over and landed next to his partner, admiring their handiwork. "Huh – that was easier than I thought."

"And what lesson did we learn from this?" Hawkeye asked him pointedly as he lowered his weapon.

"You're right – completely my fault," Tony admitted. "I solemnly promise to keep my mouth shut from now on. Now, let's get out of here before I'm tempted to say something about 'staying cool' or 'chilling out.' "

"Surely such lines are beneath the great Tony Stark," Hawkeye said sarcastically as he began riding alongside the riverbank again, now at a leisurely pace to give the reindeer time to recover.

"Then you can understand my concern, Robin Hood," Tony replied before he took to the sky again. "Now – what's the big secret?"

They followed the river downstream for a few miles without coming across the slightest change in the landscape – no people, no buildings, no more monsters or traps. They passed the point where the river widened as the other branch joined it; Tony made a mental note to try following it on the way back to see if it led to Arendelle. They didn't have to go much farther before they came across something interesting – the skeletons of tall, bare, leafless trees on both sides of the river. The number of trees (growing where there shouldn't have been trees at all) increased but never became crowded enough to be called a forest – more like a park, a grove, or an orchard.

Baffled by the sight, Tony dropped down well ahead of Hawkeye, stepped up to one, and tore off a branch, listening carefully for the sounds of agonized screams as he did so. Nope, nothing. No blood dripping from the break in the wood, either – so far, they appeared normal, but they couldn't be. "What have we got here, JARVIS?" he asked as the sensors in his visor began analyzing the sample.

He expected they had stumbled across some unknown, magical species whose chemical makeup would send readings off the scale for something. He couldn't have been more shocked when JARVIS informed him, "Their genetic makeup is consistent with that of cherry trees, sir."

"Cherry trees?" Tony repeated.

"Cherry trees?" Hawkeye repeated after him.

"With 99.7% certainty," JARVIS confirmed.

Tony stared at the branch in his hand. "What are they doing here?"

"Yet to be determined," was JARVIS' only response.

"JARVIS, what have I told you about telling me things I already know?" Tony groaned before taking off again.

"See anything up there?" Hawkeye asked him.

"Nothing yet," the mindboggled genius answered. He soon added, "Wait, disregard that."

"What? What is it?"

"No idea." He saw a stone wall, about ten feet high, up ahead on the opposite side of the frozen river. Even though every inch of the ground around it was covered in snow, there wasn't a drop of snow on the wall itself, or on the wooden gate facing the river, although there were two tall piles of snow on either side of the gate, as if two things had been buried under it. The wall and gate weren't only clear of snow but in perfect condition, even though there were no footprints or any other sign of human presence or activity anywhere around.

Tony stopped and hovered in mid-air until Hawkeye caught up with him. You didn't have to be an expert on fairy tales to know that walls with unusual properties in the middle of nowhere contained nothing usual or safe behind them. "This has danger written all over it," Hawkeye observed.

"Can't turn back now," Tony said, as if it were the most obvious point in the world. "Got anything, JARVIS?"

His assistant's voice came out shakily, as if he were on a cell phone with one bar: "-e sensors... -pear to -e malfu-ining... sir."

"JARVIS, can you speak up? What's going on?"

"... indi- … temp-tures at … -ore data... in-onclus..."

"JARVIS?" the inventor said with concern. "JARVIS, you there?" There was no response this time. "Not again." The readings on his screen began closing out, but the suit itself was still functioning perfectly. The malfunction was inexplicable... magical, he remembered he could now say. Great, maybe the air around here caused technology to go haywire like in the Bermuda Triangle. Well, if that was the case, it would fix itself as soon as they left, and there was nothing he could do about it now. He could still fly and fight. "I'm going in."

Hawkeye decided not to waste his breath saying he had a bad feeling about this.

Tony flew up and high over the wall, circling through the air as slowly as he could for a minute, listening for the sound of attack or anything else uninviting. He heard nothing, but his visor was almost dark, making it impossible to see clearly whatever it was they'd found. The visor slid open, and he looked down. "What in the... what in the... whoah..."

Fed up, Hawkeye asked him, "What? What do you see?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Tony whispered in awe. He remained staring down in stunned silence for a moment before saying, "Coast is clear. Place is deserted. Try the gate."

"What place?"

"Good question." Tony continued shaking his head in disbelief as he touched down on a blanket of springy, emerald green grass. The hot air was so stifling, he had to remove his helmet. He held it under his arm and stood where he'd landed, staring all around him in disbelief at the sunniest, brightest, most dazzlingly colorful, most breathtakingly beautiful garden he'd ever seen, the ground all but completely covered in a rainbow of flowers, all in the full bloom of summer, making the air thick with their sweet, delicious, hypnotic fragrances.


	9. Let It Go

The fact that the gate easily opened when he turned the latch confirmed Hawkeye's suspicion that this was dangerous territory – it wasn't locked to keep intruders out, but open to allow unsuspecting prey in. With his quiver of arrows and longbow strapped securely to his back, he mounted his crossbow on his shoulder and nudged the two doors open all the way with his foot but didn't step over the threshold. The sight inside the wall did nothing to ease his suspicions. Stark, standing a few feet away, turned at the noise and stared wide-eyed at him. "That was fast. Do you see what I see?" he asked.

"I see it. And I don't like it." Hawkeye scanned all around the garden from where he stood at the entrance, looking and listening for anything unusual besides the weather – bones, discarded clothes or armor, animals acting unusually alert or distressed, or making a lot of noise like they were trying to speak, the echoes of disembodied voices moaning or calling for help with no discernible source, or scantily clad women with long blonde hair. Everywhere he looked, he could see nothing but flowers, grass, bushes, and cherry trees and hear nothing but the soft murmur of running water. Besides the two men and the plants, there was no sign of any other living thing anywhere, not even a single sound of birds or insects.

The agent's first impulse was to turn around, close the gate, and ride away without looking back. Unfortunately, his hero's instinct overrode his agent's training, preventing him from feeling afraid enough to run away. The sight put him on edge, but it couldn't scare him off. He didn't lower his weapon or take a step inside, but he didn't turn around, either. "What is this place?" he asked no one in particular.

"Best I can figure, a dimension of sight, sound, and mind," Stark said from where he stood, looking around him in disbelief.

"Looks more like the Bower of Bliss to me."

"Can't be – Guyon destroyed that."

Hawkeye turned his eyes from the landscape to Stark. "What's your name?"

Without hesitation, Tony answered, "My name is Anthony Stark, but I also answer to Iron Man. I am the son of Howard Stark, current CEO of Stark Industries, boyfriend of Pepper Potts, and one of the Avengers – the team that saved the world from Loki and an extradimensional army called the Chitauri."

"Was that hard to remember?"

Stark shook his head. "Not at all. Well, that rules out the Wood Between the Worlds, too..."

Hawkeye still wasn't satisfied that the place was completely safe, but at least the atmosphere didn't seem to produce any instantaneous effects. He took a deep breath and placed one foot on the grass as if it were a bed of hot coals. Nothing happened, nothing changed, meaning it probably wasn't one of those illusions that dropped when you got close, revealing something entirely different. He moved his other foot forward and, always keeping his weapon raised and ready to fire, took a few tentative steps into the summery garden.

He hadn't gone very far when he heard the gate swung shut behind him. It didn't slam closed with a bang like a door blown shut by the wind but as slowly and quietly as a garage door being lowered. Hawkeye had expected this, but as he had already seen that his companion could still fly here, it didn't concern him, although what happened next would tell him just how concerned he should be. He tried the latch on this side of the gate; he could see no lock or keyhole, but, unsurprisingly, the door didn't budge.

"Its locks you in, doesn't it?" Tony guessed, walking towards him.

"Yeah, but how?" The puzzled agent pushed harder against the latch, just to be sure. "Come on, open up..." he mumbled under his breath. To his amazement, the gate swung open again – in the opposite direction it had when it had let him in, but, still, it opened, revealing the same snow-covered world they had just left. The frozen river and bare trees were in the exact same places; the two reindeer, still loaded with the supplies, were hungrily stripping the bark off a tree.

Tony stepped forward and pulled the gate shut again. After jiggling the latch to be sure it was closed, he took his hand away and said, "Open," at the doors. Sure enough, they opened again with nobody touching them. "Huh... odd security system."

Hawkeye was now thoroughly confused about the purpose of this place – it had all the earmarks of an evil trap, but what kind of magical prison opened whenever the prisoners asked for it? He didn't drop his guard, but knowing they were free to leave whenever they wanted all but eliminated the urge to get away. He turned away from the gate and looked around the garden once more before lowering his crossbow to his side; whatever threats they found here clearly would not be of the type you could shoot. "So, do we look around?"

"We were looking for the source of supernatural weather, right?" said Tony. "Extreme winter, extreme summer... think there could be a connection?"

"Guess we better find out before we go," Hawkeye concluded. He put the rest of his weapons down so that he could remove his coat and gloves (he couldn't think of a more anticlimactic way to go than heat stroke). Since he couldn't carry them and leave his hands free to fight, he left them on a boulder; either they would be here for him to get when he left, or they would be carried off by a race of little people whom he could track down and get answers from. He strapped his weapons back into place, adjusted his wrist guards, and checked that Stark's radio gadget was still firmly in place in his ear, even though it didn't seem to be working in here. "Stay on guard. Don't trust anything."

"And _don't_ split up," Tony added before the two explorers walked away from the wall.

They started by following the sound of the running water, which turned out to be a small stream. Tony theorized it was a branch of the river they'd found that went underground as it entered and left the garden. "How? The river outside's not flowing," Hawkeye wondered.

"No, but if it's always summer in here..."

"We don't know that," Barton said as he bent to examine the stream. It was certainly the clearest water he'd ever seen, but there were no fish or frogs or any other creatures taking advantage of such a pristine home.

"What else could it..." Tony started to say but stopped.

Barton looked up and saw him struggling to walk. "What is it?" he asked, a thousand suspicious possibilities running through his mind.

"It's the suit," Tony groaned. His armor suddenly felt like it weighed a ton. "It's... it's not moving..." It wasn't supporting him; he was supporting it. Had his body not been in its way, it would have collapsed. It was like a car stalling, and it was pinching and suffocating him as it shut down with him inside. As he had no tools here to open it manually, he had to act fast before it shut down all together. "Open," he said. When it didn't, he said, "Open eject, open eject!" more urgently. The suit finally obeyed the command and slowly pried itself apart so that he could extricate himself from the metal shell.

"You all right?" Barton asked him as he caught his breath.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Whew, this place doesn't like technology."

"Magic and technology don't mix. Should we go?" Hawkeye asked.

Tony remembered how vulnerable he'd felt the last time he couldn't get his suit to work, but, for some reason, it didn't bother him this time. He was suspicious of this place, but he wasn't the least bit afraid. "Not until we find some answers. It'll be fine once we get away from here."

"You sure?" Hawkeye asked, clearly unsure.

"Yeah, it's no big deal, come on," Tony said flippantly before walking on, Hawkeye following behind him, uneasy but also curious.

They walked over path after path, row after row, of flowers of every kind – flowers that should have bloomed in different seasons, or at different times of the day, but were all in bloom together here; bigger and brighter than flowers in the world outside the wall; many species of flower neither of them could identify and that they strongly suspected didn't exist outside. They didn't dare bend down to sniff any of them, but their scents were so strong, this was unnecessary.

The trees likewise looked brighter and more alive than other trees, dripping with perfectly round, smooth cherries as red as blood. Hawkeye gasped in horror when he once looked up and saw Stark about to put one in his mouth. "Hey!" He grabbed his wrist before the fruit could reach his lips. "Forget what happened to Persephone?"

Tony shook his head and blinked his eyes as he let the fruit fall to the ground. "No, I just... I was just..."

"Lost your head for a minute?" Hawkeye asked him.

"No, I'm fine," Tony said firmly. "I feel fine, I just..."

"We should go before this place starts playing tricks with our minds."

"I remember who I am and what we're doing here. We can do this. Just don't look too long at any one thing. Besides, those evil mind game zones never work on more than one person at once."

"Maybe it just takes longer," Hawkeye said, unconvinced, but he wasn't worried enough to press the issue.

"Maybe it's not even a trap," Tony suggested. "Maybe it's a private love nest for some couple like Oberon and Titania."

"Then the gate would lock trespassers out, not in," Hawkeye pointed out.

"Unless they want people to come in so they can have some fun messing with them."

"What a comforting thought."

They had wandered a few yards further in when they spotted something unusual... that is, something that didn't seem to fit. Right next to the wall, surrounded by a close grove of trees was a pile of charred wreckage. Closer examination revealed that the big pieces were all wood, with a few pieces of decayed but unburned thatch scattered throughout, like a thatched roof had collapsed on the pile. They found a few objects – a bowl, a comb, sheets that Stark was sure were silk – buried in the rubble. It was obvious that a house or some other small structure had burned down – the type of structure humans lived in, containing things humans used. Both men braced themselves for a grisly discovery but, fortunately, found nothing that could have been the occupants or owners of the house... at least, not in the house itself.

It was after they began searching the perimeter that Stark found it behind a tree – a skeleton lying on its back with a knife in the ribcage, perfectly positioned to go right through the heart that had once been there. A thin layer of white dust covered the remains and the ground around them. Hawkeye could tell by the bones that the victim was a woman, pretty far advanced in years, but nothing more. Further searching turned up no pictures, nothing with writing, no other bodies, no weapons, no clues of any kind to tell who she had been, who had done this, or why (Tony was personally sure they didn't want to know).

"The question is, was she the good guy or the bad guy?" Hawkeye wondered.

"Unless we find a broom, a cauldron, or a cat, my money's on 'good guy'," was Stark's conclusion.

They found nothing of the kind, and after they walked on and the scene was no longer visible, the mystery ceased to trouble either of them. Tony was more interested in the strange sounds he heard, faint but unmistakably real. "Hey, you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Hawkeye asked in reply.

"That," said Tony, but he got no response this time. Hawkeye continued walking, but Tony stopped and bent down, following the sounds. They seemed to be coming from... the ground? No, from the flowers themselves. It was like children laughing and singing very softly or far away. He couldn't make out the words, even though he somehow sensed he should be able to understand the language. He kept his eyes on the flowers by his feet now as he walked slowly amongst them, wondering how they did that. He'd never seen so many types of flowers together before. Forget new species – even the familiar flowers came in colors he was sure he'd never seen before. They were so incredible, so lovely, so beautiful... The bright colors gave him a headache just looking at them, but he couldn't pull his eyes away. He stopped when he came to a patch of red and orange lilies that looked like fire as they swayed in the breeze. He stooped down and picked one, drinking in its luscious scent. The smell set all his senses on fire, too, and it felt so good... He twirled the stem in his fingers and watched the petals spin around. That color was so beautiful... the same color as Pepper's hair...

He shook himself as the image that went with the name filled his mind. What was he doing? He quickly dropped the flower and wiped his fingers on his shirt, but he seemed to be okay – at least touching it hadn't poisoned him. Without knowing why, he closed his eyes and let his thoughts backtrack to where they'd just come from. _Pepper... Pepper..._ He held the image of her face, her body, her voice in his mind as he opened his eyes and looked in all directions, suddenly alert and on edge. "Hey, Barton..." he called.

A voice up ahead called back, "What?"

"Let's get out of here."

"What?"

Tony snapped his head around to where Agent Barton stood a few yards ahead of him. He stomped forward, treading on as many flowers as he could, and grabbed his shoulder. "You were right, let's go."

Hawkeye shook himself out of the half-stupor Tony had found him in and said nervously, "Good idea," breathing hard.

They could still see the gate they had come in by and walked towards it until they came to the stream. They were on the opposite side now, but Tony didn't remember crossing it. "I've got to get my suit," he said.

"Let's hurry," said Hawkeye. As they hiked upstream, he recited his name, parts of his history, archery instructions, and the names of other agents at S.H.I.E.L.D. to be sure he wasn't losing his memory. He felt like he was stumbling through fog. He'd been right about the air in this place playing tricks on the mind – it was so thick with the strong, sweet perfume from the flowers that he could barely think – and he'd already been mind-controlled one too many times in his life. But this didn't feel like that had. He'd felt numb and cold and dead when he'd been controlled by Loki, but every inch of this place was warm and bursting with life. It was so peaceful, so tranquil... he'd never seen the sun shine so brilliantly...

For a minute, he wondered why he kept staring at the flowers they passed. The sight didn't interest him – in fact, it bored him – but he couldn't look away. After another minute, he stopped wondering, and a minute later, he couldn't remember asking the question at all. He tried to remember what else he should have been looking for but gave up – he was too tired to bother, and thinking too hard spoiled the tranquility and distracted him from the beautiful view. There was so much to see, it was exhausting just to look. It was like each breath of air drained his energy instead of giving it...

He stumbled and dropped his weapon on the ground but made no move to pick it up. He was so tired... He knelt down and took a few breaths. Something in the back of his mind told him to get going, but there was no need to hurry. It was safe here. He felt light and free, like he'd just shed some great burden. It felt so good... if only he weren't so tired... He inched his way over to the stream and splashed some water on his face. It was so soothing that he scooped some in his hands and drank it. It was the coolest, most delicious thing he'd ever tasted, and he scooped up some more.

Tony, wary of eating or drinking anything in this place, stopped to rest in the shade of a tree. It wasn't that hot – why was he so worn out? He noticed Barton was nowhere in sight, but this only concerned him for a second. They'd be fine. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing was wrong... He closed his eyes and let the cool breeze blow over him, surrounding him with a bouquet of a million different scents, each one sweeter than the last. He inhaled deeply, trying to sort them out – rose, bluebell, honeysuckle, sunflower, gladiola, cherry...

A branch laden with cherries that glowed in the sun like rubies dangled above his head. He watched it for a while, entranced by the beautiful motion as it swayed in the breeze, before standing up and reaching up for one. He closed his lips around and held it on his tongue for a second, savoring the wonderful taste, before biting it off and dropping the stem. Sweet and succulent from beginning to end. He had to have more...

* * *

"Show me... oh, I give up! What's the use?" Hans groaned in frustration, slamming the mirror down hard on the table. He sat there, grinding his teeth and pressing his fingers against his forehead, for a bit before he picked it back up. "Show me the Snow Queen." Once again, the icy landscape in the mirror dissolved in the familiar flash of light, quickly fading away to reveal the woman in question standing with her head bent over the frozen surface of the Mirror of Reason. Hans waited until she had sensed that someone (he, specifically) was using one of the pieces of her Mirror and waved her hand, changing the image visible on her end. Now he knew she could see and hear him.

With a smug smile, the Snow Queen said, "I assume from the timing of this visit that you are aware of my latest success."

"I wish I could say I was, but, actually, I'm in the dark," he informed her. "I've asked every way I can think of, but it won't show them to me anymore!"

"Of course not," she said with an annoyed but amused look in her eye, as if he'd just pointed out the most obvious thing in the world. "Not while they're inside."

"Why can't I see inside?" he demanded.

"Because of the time fluctuation – time flows differently behind those walls; you can't watch something occurring at a different rate of time than yours."

_I should have thought of that,_ Hans realized, before he asked, "How big of a difference are we talking here?"

"The girl didn't leave until seven months after I'd seen her enter. I once heard her tell the boy that she couldn't be sure how much time had passed for her inside, but she thought it had been about two weeks. Assuming she's correct, it would seem that for every two days within, a month passes without."

Interesting, but how much would this help them? "How long will it hold them – in our time or theirs?"

"There is no way to predict that exactly." Troubling but true. "How much time do you need?"

Hans thought for a second before he asked her, "How long until you can get more people from the castle on our side?"

"How soon can you break down their loyalty to their beloved queen?"

Hans grinned in anticipation. "We'll find out in a few hours."

"I look forward to it." With that, the Snow Queen waved her arm again and strolled away from the now undoubtedly blank Mirror, the conversation over on her end.

As he could no longer be seen or heard, there was nothing for Hans to do but lay his own mirror face down on the table. "As do I," he whispered with a confident smirk.

Now that those two anomalies were temporarily removed from the equation, he could get back to business. They'd already made excellent progress, turning the vast majority of Elsa's people against her in the past two months, even more than the Snow Queen herself had estimated. It was amazing how easily a few well-timed, well-chosen words could stir up enough fear, doubt, mistrust, envy, and misdirected anger to break through any barrier of love, making them vulnerable to a frozen heart. That was his job, and he'd done it splendidly. He'd even managed to convince many people to join his pending coup against Queen Elsa without the Snow Queen's magic influence, although he had to agree with her that this wasn't advisable. Yes, it was far more fun and satisfying for him, but it was also more risky. A frozen heart – under the influence of the Snow Queen, full of blind hate that made it highly susceptible to any suggestion of a target, incapable of love or loyalty or respect or compassion or concern for justice – or a frozen eye – that could see nothing but evil in everything and do any evil without hesitation – could never have second thoughts, never question their cause, never betray them; a free mind could. So he tried to let the Snow Queen freeze them first, before he invited them to help in his mission to bring down their monster of a ruler. They were only too eager to see things his way and to accept his offer, giving him valuable, helpful allies all over the kingdom to provide him with anything he needed.

But it wasn't enough. Most of those who lived with and worked directly for the queen, who could give him the most help or cause him the most trouble, were too loyal for him to risk talking them out of it, too true for the Snow Queen to freeze them. He had to do something about that, wear them down to give the Snow Queen an opening. They should be vulnerable during the fallout from yesterday's incident. How well was everyone holding up? he wondered.

It was high time he checked in on how things were going at the castle. He turned to glance out the window for a second, noting the late-morning position of the sun, and then picked the mirror back up. "Show me Queen Elsa," he said, gleefully imagining how miserable she'd be on her first day back behind locked gates. No more parties, no more dancing, no more crowds of laughing, cheering supporters, no more impromptu ice skating... nothing to do but blame herself for endangering everyone and ruining the happy home she'd enjoyed for the past few years. She must be devastated, crushed, heartbroken, hopelessly despondent over returning to such a desolate state that evoked so many painful memories, probably unable to function...

His reflection was quickly replaced by the sight of Elsa observing a crew of workmen clearing debris from the courtyard. She looked perfectly calm and collected as she gave orders, answered questions, received news, and comforted worries as one person after another approached her. Hans wasn't surprised that she appeared to be so focused and in control; she was an expert at hiding her emotions, after all. He would have to wait until she was alone to see how badly she was really suffering.

Elsa was just finishing giving directions to the latest crew that had arrived when Princess Anna ran up to her. Judging from the lack of any shock or confusion on her face, he had missed his chance to see her reaction when she first heard the news. They embraced and held each other for a minute before Anna asked how things were going and Elsa updated her on the day's progress so far. When she was finished, Elsa asked, "How's Kristoff?"

"Sleeping," Anna told her. "Dr. Banner says he'll be okay if he takes it easy for a few days. Good thing we won't be having any more parties or anything for a while."

Elsa smiled weakly at this comment on the current state of affairs. "Just for a while," she repeated for emphasis.

"I _know_," Anna said before leaning forward and hugging her sister again. "Do what you have to do, Elsa. I'm just glad everyone's all right."

Elsa backed away and looked her little sister in the eye. "When this is over, we'll have the biggest celebration Arendelle's ever seen."

"Not bigger than my wedding?"

"Ten times bigger."

"No way."

"You think I can't do bigger than that?"

"It's _im_possible."

"Try me."

"Okay, you're on. I'm holding you to that promise."

"On my honor as your queen," Elsa said before they both burst into laughter. That was unexpected. Elsa was keeping it together as remarkably well as Anna had apparently taken the news.

A sudden wind picked up and blew Anna's hat off and her hair right out of its bun, causing them both to laugh even harder as she turned around so Elsa could tie it back up. She sighed as she worked and said, "It seems like only yesterday I was telling you to hold still so I could finish your braids before you would run out to meet Kristoff... You've grown up so much, Anna."

The princess shrugged and tried to say lightly, "I try." The two sisters smiled silently at each other again before Anna said, "Why don't you take a break, Elsa? I can take over out here for a while."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Elsa looked reluctant to abandon her post but more reluctant to imply she didn't think Anna could handle it. Besides, she looked like she could use a rest. "Very well, princess," she finally said with a half-bow. "I leave you in charge."

Anna curtseyed and said in the same mock formality, "Thank you, my Queen." They both laughed again as Elsa walked away, giving a last set of orders to the captain before she left the courtyard.

Now he would see her break down! Hans was perplexed when Elsa did nothing but sigh and shake her head a little once she was back in the castle, walking through the empty halls and corridors with no sign of crumpling under the weight of repressed anguish and anxiety. Was she that afraid of running into a servant? She appeared to be making her way up to the makeshift hospital, but she stopped when she met that doctor in the hall, looking out a window.

He looked up when he heard her coming and smiled. "You just missed your sister," he said with obnoxious familiarity.

To Hans' shock, Elsa ignored the blatant disrespect and said, "I met her outside."

"She seems to be taking things well."

"Yes, you were right," Elsa said with a smile. "As soon as I said I had something to tell her, she guessed what it was – said she and Kristoff had talked about it last night and expected it was coming. She said she hoped I wouldn't take it too hard and not to worry about it too much – it had to be done, I did the right thing, and it wouldn't be for long... I think she knew she stole my entire speech."

"How rude of her," he said with a soft laugh.

"Sometimes I forget how strong she's gotten..." Elsa looked down, taking a short trip down memory lane, before looking up and asking, "How are things going here?"

"I was able to send three more people home this morning. They brought someone new in with severe frostbite, though – said they didn't know where else to go."

Elsa sighed again and stepped right up next to him. "It's my fault for stealing all the nearest doctors."

"Well, we need all the help we can get," the man said as if he was addressing his equal instead of his queen.

Elsa only added to Hans' confusion by saying, "I'm so sorry for all the trouble I..."

"It's my pleasure. And an honor."

"Thank you," Elsa said with a grateful smile, as if she needed to ask for what she had the right to demand! "Did you need anything?"

"Oh, no, I was just..."

"Slacking off?" Elsa said playfully.

"Anna ordered me off-duty. Said I needed a break..." His voice trailed off as they looked quizzically at each other, sensing foul play. They both smiled once they realized they were the victims of a conspiracy.

Elsa, still smiling, mumbled something that sounded like, "Guess she needs something to do now besides worry about Kristoff and me and the gates..." What was that supposed to mean?

"What do we do now?" the doctor as they began walking down the hall... side-by-side!

"Everything's under control for the moment..." was the last thing Hans heard Elsa say.

What was going on here? Sure, Elsa and Anna were far freer with their subjects and visitors than was proper, but this degree of casual intimacy was extreme even for them, especially the introverted Elsa. She didn't act this friendly or comfortable with anyone except Anna and Kristoff. And even if she had, her people were still somewhat aware of their place and knew to treat their queen with more reverence than this foreigner showed her.

Nothing about this picture made sense! Hans tried to recall what he'd seen pass between them two nights ago, but he hadn't paid much attention. He'd been more concerned with watching the two strangers the Snow Queen said were powerful warriors in their homeland, one of whom seemed to be tracking him at the time. The last time he'd been able to check on Elsa that night before he had to find a new hiding place was when she asked him to dance. All he could remember was that they weren't strangers – Elsa had apparently helped him before, and he was not only grateful for whatever past charity she'd given him but obviously admired her. There was nothing unusual in that (what man could resist looking at her that way?), but it didn't explain the liberties she allowed him now. What could she possibly have to gain from it? Unless...

Hans noticed Elsa opening a door. "What's this?" the doctor asked her.

"My study," she answered, leading him in. What was she doing? Didn't she want a moment alone to cry, to break down and collect herself again before she had to return to face everyone?

Her companion instantly turned to the portrait of the old king on the wall. "My father," Elsa informed him.

"This used to be his?" the doctor guessed.

"Yes. The new ruler inherits their predecessor's rooms, along with their crown."

"That's it?" the doctor said sarcastically. Did people show their superiors _any_ respect where he came from?

Elsa continued to bewilder Hans with her own behavior. "Almost," she said with a shrug and a smile. "I also inherited his furniture..." She ran her fingers over the back of a beautifully carved chair. "... and my mother's jewelry box..." She walked over to the table underneath the portrait, picked up the item in question, and handed it to her visitor to admire. "... and her books, although I've added a few of my own over the years..." He put the jewelry box back down before following her over to the bookcase. There surely was no way he would recognize any of them, but he must have found one of the titles interesting because he took a book off the shelf and opened it to the first page. Elsa didn't reprimand him as she should have but simply said, "That's one of mine – good choice," before turning her eyes back to the room. "... and their chess set." She walked over to the table where it sat and picked up one of the black knights.

The doctor followed her, still carrying the book. He picked up the white king and examined it. "Beautiful," was his cliché comment.

"Carved from the finest white marble and onyx in the land," Elsa said in the tone of a saleswoman as she returned the knight to its place.

Her companion put his piece down, too, and asked, "Do you play?"

"My parents played with me all the time. It was my favorite game as a child. Anna and Kristoff aren't too fond of it, though, so I don't get to use it as much." She picked up a white castle and wiped some dust off of it. As the doctor picked up the black king, she asked, "Do you play?"

He shrugged in reply. "Used to, a little. It's a great way to exercise the mind."

"Or calm the mind," Elsa said rather wistfully and she put back the castle. It was the first sign of melancholy Hans had seen in her all morning, and it was related to some distant childhood memory, not the current state of her home!

"Did it work?" the doctor asked, putting back the king.

"Sometimes. Mostly, it helped to pass the time..." Elsa idly slid the white queen's pawn forward two squares.

Hans was sure it was blind instinct that caused the doctor to reach for one of the black pawns. He paused with his fingers on it, however, before he moved it forward one square.

Elsa looked up at him with a mischievous smile. "Play until they need us?"

Her opponent shrugged again, "Whatever you say, Your Highness."

Hans watched dumbfounded as they played, all the troubles of the moment temporarily forgotten as they focused on the game. This couldn't be right. Elsa was obviously upset about locking the gates, but she wasn't completely miserable like he'd counted on. At the moment, she was actually... happy! Was this all that came of his work yesterday?! He pounded the table in frustration. How could this happen? How could he be so wrong? What had he miscalculated?

"Check!" he heard the doctor say.

"That's forbidden!" Elsa declared.

"Says who?"

Elsa lifted up her knight and said, "He does," before sending it in to capture his bishop.

"We'll see about that," her opponent said before capturing the offending knight with his queen. "Now, where was I...? Check."

"I can't believe I fell for that..."

"We always manage to miss the obvious..." The two fell silent and stared at each other as if this statement contained some deeper meaning for both of them.

Elsa didn't look down as she moved her king to safety. After waiting a while, she said, "Your move..."

The doctor shook himself back to his senses and looked at the board. "I pass," he said.

"Why would you do that?"

"It's safest."

"Safe doesn't win games..." Elsa said as she moved her queen through the now-clear path. "Check."

Hans didn't like the way she grinned at him when she did that, or the way he grinned back at her. To his relief, they got called away before they could finish. He shook his head and ran a hand over his face and through his hair. He must be imagining things. But, no, he was too good at reading people to give himself the benefit of that doubt. Elsa, the ice queen who had never given any suitor a first glance, whom no king had ever made the slightest impression on, whom no man had any hope of wooing... Another peasant with no bloodline, no title, nothing to offer aspiring to rise to the heights that had narrowly eluded him... Either he was mistaken, or the two of them were falling for each other. It was impossible to decide which option was more unbearable or impossible.

He would definitely need to keep an eye on them.

* * *

Someone was screaming – yelling frantically, desperately, somewhere far away. Tony couldn't make out the words, but he didn't care. He didn't listen; he didn't wish it would stop. It didn't matter. The sound was already fading away...

He felt his shoulders shaking as a loud voice screamed in his ear. Why? What was wrong? What did they want? He was too tired to wonder for long. He let the sound drift over him, sighing in weary contentment.

"AAH!" Tony opened his eyes and sat up with a start as a searing pain shot through his hand. Something supporting him disappeared, causing him to fall to one side; as he did so, he saw that the fingers of his right hand were clasped tightly around the stem of a red rose with unusually sharp thorns. He threw it to the ground and pressed his cut and bleeding hand against his shirt as he leaned back against a tree. He then noticed he was surrounded by green grass and flowers that would have put his most luxuriant gardens and greenhouses to shame, which didn't make sense. Where did this come from in a record-breaking cold winter almost as far north as you could go? How did he get here?

His breath stuck in his throat as he remembered. He looked around him again and realized he'd been lying on the ground. He also noticed how hungry and thirsty he was. How long had he been asleep? How could he have fallen asleep? What happened?! He stared helplessly around him, as if looking for answers he knew he wouldn't find, before his eyes fell on the rose. He seized it and jumped to his feet, squeezing it hard in his hand, treasuring every stab of pain. It was the pain that kept his mind clear. He checked his watch, relieved to find it was still working (he guessed it was too low-tech to be affected by the magic here). Over a day a half had passed since he'd spotted this place! He had slept for over a day! How was that possible? Who had woken him up? Who had been screaming? Not Barton...

Barton! He ran, having no idea where he should run, where to look, where he was, or where his companion was. He just ran, shouting, "Barton! Barton!" dreading what condition he'd find him in.

He stopped in his tracks when heard a woman's voice yelling. Tony listened for a second and remembered he had heard it just a few minutes ago. She was speaking fast in Finnish – it sounded like, "Wake up! Get up! Do you hear me? Wake up now!"

He followed the voice until he almost ran right into a stream. He was dizzy and weak, but he managed to stop himself from falling. He turned upstream towards the voice and saw Agent Barton lying on the ground with a figure – dressed in rags, with long, black hair – bending over him. Barton raised his head with a sharp gasp of pain, and Tony ran towards them.

"Hey!" The figure didn't even take the time to turn around and look at him but instantly stood up and took off in the opposite direction, running like the wind. Tony bent down and saw that Barton had been given the same treatment he'd received – a thorny rose stem pressed into his right hand. "You all right?" Tony asked him.

"Ow, what..." It took Hawkeye a few seconds to get his bearings and for the memory of where they were to come back to him. Once the look of recognition and fear came into his eyes, he, too, clutched the rose even tighter as if it were a lifeline. "Obviously not," he finally answered. "What happened?"

"We fell asleep. For over a day."

Hawkeye didn't question this. "Figures. Could have been worse. Who was that?"

"No idea, no time to find out, let's go," Tony said quickly, helping the archer to his feet.

Hawkeye gathered up his weapons before standing up. To his surprise, everything was accounted for – not a single arrow was missing. "Where'd she go?"

Tony pointed. "That way." They ran after her, both thinking that if she was trying to get away, she could lead them to an exit.

Sure enough, they hadn't gone far upstream before the wall and the same gate they'd come in by – now standing wide open – appeared on the horizon. They were halfway to it when Tony stopped as he remembered. "Where's the suit?" He'd needed to remove it just after they'd come to the stream from the gate, so it should have been around here.

Hawkeye glanced all around them but didn't see it, and it was too dangerous to look at the other things in here for very long. He found his coat and gloves exactly where he'd left them on the boulder by the entrance. He hurried to put them on. "Maybe she knows," he said. "Come on!"

"I can't leave without the suit!"

"You can't find the suit if you lose your mind!" Hawkeye didn't take any more time to reason with him but grabbed his arm and ran to the gate; Tony was beside himself with such terror over losing his armor that he couldn't resist.

They both ran through the open gate, out of the warm summer sun into the freezing winter air. Tony, who had relied on his armor for protection from the cold before, shuddered at the rapid change in temperature. In a few more seconds, he was sure he'd freeze to death. Barton grabbed him before he could stumble forward into the snow and said, "Look!"

Tony followed his gaze but almost couldn't believe what he saw lying on the ground just a few feet away. He waded through the snow as fast as he could, turned, and fell on his back. Never had he been so grateful to feel that metal slide and click into place around him!

Tony remained lying on his back in the armor, waiting for the adrenaline rush of the previous panic to wear off, until Barton stood over him, holding a red helmet. "Think you might need this?" he asked.

Tony wordlessly took it from him, stood up, and slipped it on. Once it was firmly in place, he slid the visor open and asked, "Where'd you find it?"

Barton pointed at the ground beside him. "Right next to it. Good thing whoever found it was kind enough to return it to you."

Now that they were no longer in immediate danger, Tony began to wonder who that was. "Yeah... who was that?"

"Whoever she was, I think she saved us."

"Exactly – why? How did she even know we were in there? And why'd she run?" Tony fired the thrusters at a cautious 2% and felt himself lift off from the ground with no trouble. "JARVIS, you there?" Apparently, he wasn't, but at least the suit was working as well as it had right before he'd flown in there. He rose up and hovered in place, scanning the area below. "All right, where'd you go? Who are you?" Whoever it was, he'd find her...

"Stark, do you read me?" he heard Barton ask. Good – the radio was working, too.

"Loud and clear – you see anything?"

Before he could get an answer, Tony spotted the same ragged figure he'd seen in the garden racing through the skeletal remains of the cherry orchard, darting from tree to tree as swiftly and as nimbly as a rabbit. Or a thief. He took off in her direction, determined to get some answers, when he heard Barton tell him, "Stark! Let her go!"

Tony couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What, are you crazy?! What's going on here?"

"It doesn't matter. We don't have time for this! Let's just get as far away from here as we can as fast as we can."

"She saved us and ran off – that doesn't seem suspicious to you? What's her angle? What's she up to?"

"If she wanted to tell us, she would have stuck around. You're not gonna get any answers out of her."

"I want to know who saved us!"

"Someone who doesn't want to be found. Leave her alone. It's the least we can do in return."

Tony couldn't deny he was right. Nevertheless, he followed the woman for a few minutes, waiting to see if she would either meet someone or do something that might give him a clue about their mysterious rescuer. She must have heard him flying after her, but she never looked up; she kept her eyes on the ground, never slackening her pace as she ran through the snow. Tony was sure he would have ignored Barton and gone down to confront her if JARVIS hadn't suddenly said, "Full power restored. All systems online."

"JARVIS! Glad to see you again, buddy – where've you been?"

"Connections were temporarily blocked by outside interference, locking me out. History shows that all systems were temporarily disabled by contact with a massive energy field that scrambled all data streams and disrupted communications between components."

"Yeah, I got that..." Tony gave up on tracking down their rescuer and flew back the way he'd come. "Sorry, JARVIS – got to put you on hold again for a minute. Stand by – you'll be back soon."

"As you wish, sir," the AI said before falling silent, shutting off before Tony could get close enough that the magic in the air would do it for him.

Tony landed next to Hawkeye, who was untying one of the reindeer from a tree. "Did you tie them up?" he asked, positive he remembered seeing them wandering around before he closed the gate.

"No, but look," said Barton, gesturing to the ground around them. There were hoof prints all over the snow, as if they had wandered around waiting for their rider to return, and trees everywhere stripped bare of bark – the only thing they had to eat. Tony didn't know much about reindeer (or the nutritional value of tree bark), but he was surprised they could eat so much of it in one day.

"Guess we're lucky they knew to wait for us," Tony observed. He opened the visor and turned to the reindeer. "Sorry about that, guys – thanks for waiting."

It looked almost like the animals smiled at him, glad to see the two men were all right (imagine the possibilities if horses, dogs, or other animals understood humans as well as the animals around here!). Hawkeye now took the sack of feed from among the packs and set it open on the ground. The two beasts buried their noses in it as if they hadn't eaten well for days. Tony turned his attention back to the wall that concealed the prison they'd just been released from. "Check it out," Hawkeye said, pointing at a trail in the snow that led out from the gate.

Tony easily guessed what had made the trail. "So this woman either knows we're trapped in a magic stupor in there, or comes in for some other reason and finds us, drags my armor out first, ties up our mounts at some point (probably thinking they'd wander away if she didn't), then comes back in, forces us to wake up... and runs for it without giving us a single explanation."

"That about sums it up," Hawkeye agreed.

Tony now noticed where the roses they'd dropped had landed. He walked over and picked them up, shaking off the snow that clung to them. The brightness of the green stem and red petals, the large number of petals, and the sharpness of the long thorns were so unlike any rose he'd ever seen that he wondered if they came from that garden. The thought made him drop them again. They'd served their purpose anyway.

Tony shook his head, getting more confused the more he thought about it. "Whoever she is, if she wants to protect people from that place, why doesn't she destroy it?"

"Probably can't – places like this are never easy to destroy," Hawkeye replied. "I bet if I shot an explosive at that wall right now, it wouldn't even scratch it."

"The house wasn't destruction-proof."

"Maybe she's the one who burned down that house."

"She might have killed that woman we found," Tony realized.

"For all we know, that woman might have tried to kill _her_," said Hawkeye.

"Or someone else..." Tony got an idea. "Maybe this is her revenge – kill the person who killed someone you love and then prevent her trap from claiming any other victims."

"Then why wasn't she here when we went in?" Hawkeye asked.

"No idea. Why did she run?"

"No idea, but it's none of our business."

"Right. Oh, well, we'll find out eventually," Tony said with complete confidence.

The reindeer seemed to have eaten their fill, and Hawkeye tied the sack up again. "I'm more interested in finding the source of this polar vortex."

"We still don't know if this has anything to do with that."

"I think there _is_ a connection," Hawkeye said as he swung himself into the saddle. "Somebody went to a lot of trouble and set up a pretty clever trap to get us here. Somebody who knew exactly how we think and how to lure us over. Why?"

"To stop us from finding something we shouldn't. And we fell for it."

"Well, the good news is it's a mistake you only make once," Hawkeye said as if he were giving himself an order. He pulled his tablet out from his jacket, an angry, steely look in his eyes. The look soon faded into confusion, however, as he studied the screen.

"What is it?" Tony asked him.

"Nothing, it was just rebooting." He didn't look any less confused, however, as the device powered back up. After it was fully on, he tapped the screen a few times and then completely froze, his face revealing no clue as to why.

"What?" Tony asked again.

Barton continued staring at the screen for a few seconds in silence before he spoke again: "Stark, how long did you say we were asleep in there again?"

"A day and a half – I checked."

"You sure?"

"My watch is sure – why?"

Barton held the tablet out with the screen facing Stark. "What date do you see there?"

Tony stared blankly at it until he realized he was trembling. "That's impossible."

"You do realize they have different standards of impossible out here?"

"No food, no water... we'd be dead by now," Stark insisted. "If not, we would have been too stiff to move."

"Then how do you explain this?" Barton asked, pointing at the screen again.

Stark shook his head. "Let's... let's get away from here before we do anything else." With that, he took to the air and followed the river back to where they'd taken their detour, slow enough to keep pace with the reindeer cantering below him.

Once they'd put some distance between themselves and the magic garden, all of the armor's screens came back online. "Welcome back, JARVIS," Tony said.

"It's good to be back, sir, especially if it's permanent."

"Should be. Listen, JARVIS, what's the date today?" A calendar with the same date Barton's tablet had given them flashed before his eyes. "That's not possible. Check it again."

"Time and date confirmed, sir."

Tony opened and closed his fingers, rotated his ankles, flexed his neck. No way he'd been asleep for three weeks. His watch hadn't stopped; he'd clearly seen the seconds advancing one digit at a time. How could this be true? There was only one way he could think of. "They Rip van Winkled us," he said.

"What are you talking about?" Barton asked in his ear.

"Only a day and a half passed inside that place according to my watch," Stark explained. "According to all the satellites your computer and mine have access to, three weeks passed out here. If they're _all_ right, then that means that the day we spent in there..."

"... took three weeks out here," Hawkeye finished for him. He didn't sound the least bit skeptical. "Classic."

Tony couldn't take it quite as calmly. "Three weeks... three entire weeks gone..."

"Relax, Stark, we got off easy. It could have been something like one day for every..."

"70 years, yeah, I know." That explained why the reindeer had time to eat so much and why they were starving after living for so long on nothing but bark. But wait... "Wait a minute... when the gate was open, we saw..."

"The different rate of time must only kick in when the gate's closed."

"Of course it does," Stark groaned. "Can't wait to tell Cap about this."

"We'd better stop and look for a place to build a fire. I'm starving."

"Yeah, me, too," Tony mumbled, only half-hearing him.

True, three weeks wasn't that long a time if you didn't spend it sleeping on the job! Three weeks wasted while the world continued to freeze! And they still had such a long way to go, and who knew what they would have to face when they got there? How could he have been stupid enough to let this happen? Barton was right – he'd definitely never let himself make a mistake like that again. He wondered how long Fury had expected this vacation to take, how long before they were given up for lost. Pepper must be worried sick – he hadn't prepared her not to hear from him for so long. And Banner... what did he think had happened to them?

He seized the last thought, desperate for a distraction from his guilt. He hoped his friend was all right back in Arendelle. How had Bruce and Queen Elsa spent the past three weeks?

* * *

The past few weeks had done nothing to set Hans' mind at ease. Locking the gates again gave Elsa a much greater amount of free time after attending to her queenly duties, and – as Anna had become inexplicably busy lately, and insisted Kristoff was, too, even after he started to heal – she found herself spending more and more of it with Bruce. After Anna managed to avoid eating breakfast, dinner, and supper with her sister and their only guest for the third day in a row, it was Bruce who asked what the princess was up to.

Elsa had to smile as she confessed, "I fear there is a diabolical plot against us underway."

Bruce smiled back. "You think it'll work?"

"My sister can be _very_ stubborn."

An hour later, Anna watched from her window as Bruce left the castle. She squealed with joy when Elsa left ten minutes later, gripping the curtains tightly in her fists to stop herself from crying out. "There they go again. Told you so!"

Kristoff, sitting a few feet away tuning his lute, looked up with an air of defeat. "Okay, fine – three times, not a coincidence. You win."

"I know," Anna squeaked as she closed the curtains and twirled towards her husband.

"Where do you think they go?" he asked.

"I asked Elsa where she'd been yesterday, and she said the ice palace."

"You think she was telling the truth?"

Anna perched on the arm of his chair and threw her arm around his shoulders. "Sure – she didn't say who she went with."

"And nobody else has noticed they both go missing at the same time?"

"I think everyone has more important things to worry about right now."

"You don't say?" said Kristoff, raising an eyebrow to match his sarcasm.

"This _is_ important!" Anna insisted. "It's what I've been waiting for for years!"

"That's what you said about the King of Andalasia," Kristoff reminded her. "And the Prince of Maldonia. And the Duke of..."

"This is different. I'm not making this up. I didn't try to start anything. Elsa started this on her own."

"Good – then you can stay out of it."

"I _am_ staying out of it," said Anna, crossing her arms. "I'm not doing anything, I'm giving them their privacy..." Kristoff scoffed and smirked at her, which translated to, _Exactly_, but Anna went on: "I haven't said a word about it to either of them. All I'm doing is hoping – where's the harm in that?"

Kristoff shook his head but couldn't hide his grin of amusement at his wife's attitude. "How do you know what you're hoping for? You don't know the whole story."

"I know he makes her happy."

"She tell you that?"

"I didn't ask – I'm staying out of it, remember?"

"So you're basing this theory on, what, your new ability to read minds?"

Anna tapped his shoulder with the back of her hand for that. "Haven't you seen the way they look at each other?"

"No."

"Well, I have. It's the same way you looked at me the day you first told me you loved me."

Kristoff smiled but didn't take the bait. "It is not."

"If not, it will be soon," Anna said with a confident grin. "Oh, I wish I could see the looks on their faces when that happens! Who do you think will say it first – Elsa or..."

Kristoff put his instrument down and his hand on his wife's shoulder. "Anna, you need to let it go. This is none of our business."

Anna's smile didn't change a fraction. "It's my business to be happy that my sister's finally found true love."

"They're not in love," Kristoff said plainly.

"Of course not – they're still falling, but it won't be long..." Anna rose from her perch and skipped back to the window.

"Anna..."

"I bet he'll fall for her first, but Elsa will be the first to admit it."

"Anna..."

"Probably a month. Six weeks, at the most..."

"Anna!"

"What?" Anna's smile vanished when she turned around and saw the serious look on his face. He started to get up, but she gestured for him to stay seated as she walked back to him (Kristoff feared she'd remain terrified that any movement might kill him as long as these stitches were in his head).

Kristoff hung his head and sighed before looking up at her. "Look, say you're right – your sister _is_ falling for him... you sure that's a good thing?"

Anna laughed at something so silly. "He saved your life. He's helped so many people they've brought here over the past few days. He's kind and strong and honorable and..."

"Yeah, I know he's a great guy. He _would_ be great for her..."

"_Would_ be?"

"... but even if they were in love, what would happen next? Where would it go from there? Think about it."

He could see by the change in her face that this was the first time Anna ever had thought about that part. She finally said, "You and I..." but stopped before she could get any further.

"Elsa's the queen. It's different, and you know it."

Anna sighed in resignation – hadn't her very first thought after the Council shared their objections to the marriage been that she'd never been so happy to be just the spare? "The Queen of Corona married a commoner," she tried to argue.

"A Queen the entire kingdom had mourned for for eighteen years. They were so thrilled to get her back, she could have gotten away with anything, and he was the one who brought her back in the first place. She was popular with everyone; she could do what she wanted. Elsa... well, not everybody trusts her as easily."

Anna knew this was true, too. Even before the horrible change in everyone started this winter, Elsa's powers had put her in a precarious position. Everything she did was under twice as much scrutiny as it would have been for any other ruler. She didn't have the universal respect and popularity necessary to openly violate tradition without fear of consequences. "Okay, so they couldn't get married. That doesn't mean..." She stopped again.

"What, that they couldn't be together?"

"It wouldn't be the first time."

"Only kings can get away with that."

"Not always. They call it 'the Queen's favorite,' right?"

"The Queen's favorite defends her honor; they don't sleep together."

"They're not _supposed_ to, but it still happens – everyone knows that."

"You think Elsa would go for that?" Kristoff asked with complete sarcasm.

Anna's only answer was another bitter sigh. "It's not fair."

"It's not. But that's the way it is." Anna turned back towards the window across the room where she'd watched them leave for their secret rendezvous. "Elsa knows that. He has to know it, too. It would never work out." Kristoff reached up and put his hand on her shoulder. Anna turned around and threw her arms around his neck before she slid down to the floor and nestled her head against his chest.

They didn't speak anymore after that but just held each other, both of them thinking how fortunate they were that it had worked out for them, Kristoff hoping it was all in Anna's imagination and that neither Elsa nor their new friend would get hurt, and Anna just wondering how they _would_ work it out in the end.

* * *

Kristoff was right, of course – Elsa knew the Queen of Arendelle loving a foreign commoner could never lead anywhere, even if he weren't suffering from an evil curse that no one would be able to see past if they knew. Bruce knew it even better than she did; he'd accepted that anything of the sort was impossible for him long ago. He would only put her in danger; he would only hurt her – it was inevitable. He was a time bomb that simply exploded much less frequently now. That curse had been in his blood since the day he was born – every day growing up, he had seen what he would become. The accident just took whatever little power of choice he had out of the process. If he'd ever doubted his destiny, the other guy had confirmed what he really was deep down. The only way he could protect those he cared about from the fall out was to keep them as far away as possible. He'd managed to put the monster on a leash, but it was still dangerous to those who came too close. It was safe for him to feel now; it would never be safe to let her in.

They both knew it was hopeless. They were also wise enough in the ways of love to know it didn't matter.

Fortunately, both Bruce and Elsa had too much experience in the detrimental effects of denying your feelings to do it again. Neither of them took the irrational route of trying to protect themselves from suffering by making themselves suffer, to ward off the pain of hopeless love by doing painful things like avoiding each other or refusing to think about it. Forbidding yourself from loving someone or being around them hurt even more than loving someone you knew you could never have, so what was the point of hurting yourself to protect yourself from getting hurt? Resisting or fighting a love that wouldn't work out made no sense to either of them – it was simply trading one genuine misery for another false, unnecessary misery. As the weeks went by, they both acknowledged the change happening in themselves – they each admitted it, accepted it, and despaired of anything ever coming of it. They expected no relief, no satisfaction, nothing; it was just something they would have to bear, like an illness.

They felt it during their long talks in Elsa's ice palace. Despite her reason for using that remote location as their meeting place, they never talked about his powers or his experiences with them – Bruce never brought it up again because he didn't want the other guy to come between them, and Elsa wouldn't talk about it unless he wanted to. They ended up sticking to more pleasant subjects. Bruce told her all about life in the outside world, the incredible things they'd invented there and what they could do. Elsa told him all about the kingdoms in her world and the exciting stories she'd heard about them, like the princess who had hair that was 70 feet long with the power to heal. They talked about his teammates and her sister and the crazy things they did together. The talked about their passions for science, and Elsa impressed Bruce with her talent for geometry and architecture.

They felt it when she told him about her dreams of turning into a whirlwind of snow, flying through the sky as light as air and as fast as a blizzard. She'd wondered so many times if she could really do it, if her dreams were trying to tell her that she still had power she hadn't unlocked yet. He believed she could do anything and told her so, and she realized no one else's praise had ever made her so happy.

They felt it when Elsa marveled at how well he spoke her language and he admitted that he began studying it again after he met her. "Would you teach me some of your language?" she asked him. This worked out so well that she asked him to teach her a little about how to fight, too. This confused him, at first, as it seemed that any soldier in her kingdom could have taught her, but she said she'd never wanted to learn anything from them. There was only so much he could show her without getting his heart rate up, but it was enough.

They felt it whenever he worried about his friends, wondered why they were taking so long, and started to berate himself for not going with them. He became more anxious the more days went by that they didn't return. She was always there to put a supportive hand on his shoulder and assure him they would be all right – she had seen what they could do, they could handle anything, but the minute he decided they'd been gone too long, she would lead a rescue party to find them. He knew her early life had given her too much contempt for dishonesty and secrecy for her to lie to him about anything, and her honesty and confidence not only cheered him up but made him admire her all the more.

They felt it when she showed him the hall of royal portraits and told him all the best stories of her ancestors, ending with her parents. He put his arm around her as she talked about how much she missed them, how she never got to show them that she could not only control her powers but use them to make and do such wonderful things. He assured her they knew. She asked him what his parents were like. He flinched and his hand instinctively shot to his neck, as if he could still feel the blows. He didn't answer, and she never asked again.

They felt it as they worked to protect her kingdom. Victims of the cold continued coming to him, and he continued to help everyone who came. The doctors who weren't affected were eager to learn the skills he'd brought from the outside, and she couldn't thank him enough for teaching them and taking care of her people.

They felt it when they heard the cruel things people whispered – and shouted – about her in the streets, when he put an arm protectively around her no matter where they were and she squeezed his hand, assuring him she was all right and it wasn't worth getting angry about. It was easy to be always angry here.

They felt it when they played chess in her study. She was always white, he was always black, sometimes she won, sometimes he won. One day, she ordered him to be white. He had no idea why, but he certainly didn't intend to argue.

She grinned almost evilly at him as they took their seats. "First move's yours."

He studied her for a long time before moving a knight first instead of a pawn. "Strong beginning," she observed.

"But a risky, foolish one."

"Then why'd you do it?"

"Because I can't stand hiding – that never does any good..." He played his best, but that knight was the first valuable piece she took. "... But moving forward too fast is more dangerous."

"There's a lot at risk here," she said as she lost pawn after pawn.

"What are you going to do about it?" he asked as a bishop moved to threaten her castle.

"I can't lose it," she answered as she moved her queen to protect the castle.

"I wouldn't want to take it," he said as he moved his own queen to safety.

"Too bad – I was hoping you would." She moved her own bishop that was now no longer necessary to protect her queen.

"We don't every time get what we want," he said as he captured yet another pawn.

She immediately took one of his. "But we take what we can get."

"Not very much – won't do you much good."

She twirled it between her fingers. "Even the humblest player can rise above its narrow sphere and break its limited bounds."

"I know." He smiled as he moved a pawn to the back row, earning a promotion. "This one's become a knight."

"Not as powerful as a queen but freer," she said with a sigh of longing.

"Doesn't stand a chance with a queen," he said as her queen captured his other knight.

"It would under the right circumstances. Check."

"You won't get me that easily," he laughed as he moved his king to safety.

"Isn't victory all the sweeter when it's not easy? Check."

He moved the king again. "If you win. The harder the game is, the more likely it'll just end in a draw or a stalemate –both sides destroy each other, both lose."

"Or both win. Check." He stared at the board for a while, so she added, "We'll keep going around in circles like this forever unless you go on the offensive."

"I pass."

Matching his sarcasm, she said, "Too bad you can't – it's against the rules to remain checked. You have to try as long as there's a chance."

He moved the king in retreat again. "Is there any other way?"

"Check. I hope there is."

He moved a castle between his king and her queen, sure she wouldn't use the queen against it. To his amazement, she did, even though it put her queen in the perfect position to be taken by his knight. "Check," she said again.

He stared at the field in deep concentration without moving a muscle. "Well, is the knight going to take the queen?" she asked.

He finally raised his head and looked at her. _Take it_, her eyes told him. _You know you want to_. "That move gives me no chance of winning," he said, not looking at her. He moved the knight back instead, in a better position to protect his king.

"Neither will that. Checkmate." He gasped as he realized the trap he'd fallen into. "Next time, I suggest you go ahead and take the queen."

"It's too dangerous."

"It's a dangerous game no matter what."

"Then we never should have started playing."

"But we did..."

They felt it when they stood a few feet away from each other in moments like that and resisted the impulse to lean forward until their lips met.

They felt it when they finally began to talk not only of pleasant topics but painful topics. She recalled growing up in seclusion and fear, learning to hate herself and wishing she would just die and free her family from the burden of her. He told her about his father up to a point, but since he didn't answer when she asked what happened to his parents, he guessed by the way she threw her arms around him and clung to his neck that she figured out the rest. One more similar sorrow to bind them together.

Sympathy, admiration, gratitude, and friendship – they had gathered all the ingredients of love, but they didn't mix them together in the recipe for love right away. The length of time it takes is different for everyone, but it always takes a while after that initial spark of attraction is ignited for a bond to grow to until you reach the point where you feel the other person is necessary to your happiness, and even longer to discover you've reached that point, and longer still to find the courage to confess it aloud. Rarely do lovers travel at the exact same pace, and they were no exception. Being a woman, Elsa reached that point first, but when he got there, Bruce, having more experience, recognized the feeling for what it was before she did. Neither of them had the usual human luxury of ignoring their feelings or repressing their pain. They had to feel it. They had to face it. They had to let it go.

But as long as there was no hope, they didn't have to act on it. They could admit it to themselves without speaking of it to each other. It was a pain worth feeling, unlike the ugly, deceitful pain of resistance and denial. As long as they could continue spending time together as friends, they could be happy in spite of knowing their hunger for more could never be satisfied. The hard part was resisting the temptation to take just a _little_ more, knowing it would only whet their appetite and make the deprivation harder to bear.

One night, they stayed at the ice palace much longer than usual, until they could count every star in the night sky. Elsa did some quick remodeling so that they could view them comfortably, and they learned the different shapes their worlds saw in the stars and the different names they gave these different constellations as they lay next to each other in the dark. The circumstances seemed irresistible – if they were ever going to break and take that fatal next step, it would surely happen tonight, but it didn't. Bruce was the one who pointed out it was getting late and they should be getting back. Elsa lowered them safely down to the ground and told him to follow her lead when they got back, as she knew all the servants' routines and how to get through without being spotted.

"We're not doing anything wrong, are we?" he asked her.

"Of course not, but how would it look?" They laughed with no effort because they both knew they were now safe. Why? Because the image they had inadvertently brought to mind with that exchange made them both too shy to even think about taking advantage of the ideal conditions tonight. The moonlight could do its worst – they had no desire to say anything more on the subject after that.

When they reached the castle, they sneaked through Elsa's carefully plotted path of back doors, rarely used corridors, and hallways when they were sure to be empty without a word. The path a guard would be taking required them to detour up a flight of stairs so that they reached Elsa's floor first. She gave Bruce the directions to take back to his room below.

"Good night," she whispered when she finished, still holding his hand.

He bowed to her and whispered back, "Good night, my Queen," then raised her hand and kissed it – nothing they hadn't done before. He indulged in a few seconds of imagining her with her beautiful hair down before she winked at him and walked away. They'd survived another day. They were strong enough to bear the pain without giving in. If they could withstand tonight, they could withstand anything.

Alas, nothing puts one in more danger than a firm belief that one is safe. Convinced they were safe, they grew careless and dropped their guard, leaving themselves defenseless the next day, facing an attack under the most unlikely of circumstances.

He had tended to all of his patients at the hospital (fortunately, a steadily shrinking population at the time), and she had finished reviewing and signing all the documents brought to her that morning, so they had some free time on their hands earlier than usual. Elsa asked Anna if she wanted to go for a walk around the fjords, and, of course, she declined, so they ended up going alone. Within sight of town, he walked respectfully behind her like any escort, but once they crossed the bridge, they walked side-by-side and chatted and laughed as they pleased.

Elsa drew some beautiful snow and ice designs in the air as they hiked while Bruce asked if they didn't have enough snow already. She blew a stream of snow in his direction that snaked all around him. He exclaimed, "Hey!" in fake indignation and jogged away. She followed him, constantly wrapping more ribbons of snow around him, prompting him to change direction. They kept this up until he'd turned completely around and headed towards her.

Elsa dropped the snow and backed away from him, stopping at tree after tree until he almost reached it and then sliding away again. The slow chase continued until she tripped on a tree root. Bruce tried to grab her arm but only ended up getting pulled down with her. They rolled over twice before coming to a stop, landing with their arms still wrapped around each other.

Still laughing, Elsa brushed her braid out of her face as she looked up at her would-be rescuer. "Are you okay?" they asked at the same time, then answered, "I'm fine," causing them both to laugh even harder.

Elsa was the first one to collect herself enough to speak intelligibly. "Sorry about that."

"You _just_ beat me to that one," Bruce said in mock disappointment.

"You sure you're all right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, the snow isn't as comfortable for you as it is for me," Elsa said nonchalantly as she lay in the snow. "I could lie here forever."

"So could I..."

Their laughter faded away as they looked at each other, neither of them making a single move to get up. Bruce thought she'd never looked more beautiful than she did right now, surrounded by her element, so alive and full of joy. He never wanted this moment to end.

But end it would. The question was, how? He knew how she wanted it to end. He wanted it, too; he always had – he admitted it. But years of training and conditioning and exiling the very idea of love from his mind held him back. He had locked and bolted that door and thrown away the keys long ago – how could he open it now, knowing what was on the other side? He actually trembled with fear for her, but she gave his arms a reassuring squeeze. She wasn't afraid. Was he strong enough not to give in? Or was he brave enough to make this move? He held her close beneath him in the snow, torn between fear and longing.

For him, there was only one option:_ Let it go_, he told himself._ Just let it go._

He fell beside her, leaned forward, and, right there in the snow, he kissed her – slowly, deeply, longingly, hungrily; every second, every breath not quenching the thirst of his soul but increasing it; the feel of her body pressed against his, of her arms encircled around his neck, of her hair under his fingers assuring him this was real. They had left the ledge behind them and were gliding down the cliff, and all his fears of the past and for the future vanished in the ecstasy of the present moment.

He started it; he had made the first move, just as she wanted. But after they slowly drew apart, Elsa, her eyes closed, her forehead pressed against his, her hand on his shoulder, was the first to say it: "I love you."

"I..." He took one deep breath and embraced her again. _Let it go_. "I love you... I love you."


End file.
